Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], September 30 : An eight-member delegation of the NDA-BJP on Tuesday visited the hospital in Karur where those injured in the September 27 stampede are currently undergoing treatment.
The visit is part of the delegation's fact-finding mission following the tragic incident that claimed 41 lives during a public event held by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief and actor Vijay.
Before arriving at the hospital, the delegation, constituted by BJP national president JP Nadda, visited the site of the stampede to inspect the area and interact with eyewitnesses. BJP MP Anurag Thakur, while speaking to reporters at the site, said, "We are going to the hospital. Let us meet those who are injured, then Hema ji will update all of us. She will address the media"
Members of the delegation include BJP MPs Hema Malini, Aparajita Sarangi, Anurag Thakur, Tejasvi Surya, Braj Lal, Rekha Sharma, Shrikant Shinde (Shiv Sena), and Putta Mahesh Kumar (Telugu Desam Party). BJP MP Hema Malini is the convenor of the committee.
Eyewitnesses narrated to the delegation the events that led to the stampede. One eyewitness claimed that TVK leader Aadhav Arjuna had approached actor Vijay during the event, alerting him to the fact that people were fainting due to the crowd pressure. In response, water bottles were reportedly thrown from the vehicle to the crowd.
"TVK's Aadhav Arjuna went up to Vijay and said that people are fainting. They immediately started throwing water bottles from the vehicle...Local administration failed...The road was 19 feet, and the vehicle itself was 12 feet... After the commotion started, he ended the speech and left. Vijay was present for 10 minutes...," the eyewitness told the delegation.
Another eyewitness added, "Within 3-4 minutes after Vijay started speaking, people started fainting. A commotion started, and then an ambulance arrived - that, too, caused a commotion. All of us started running...It took one hour to clear everything...Several people who were not from here were in the crowd...Why did people push us to the ditch and not to the other side?"
Earlier in the day, Anurag Thakur said the delegation's first priority is to listen to the families of the victims before preparing their report.
"...Let us first hear the views of the people who lost their family members, ask the local people, officials, get the feedback and then we will submit our report," Thakur, who is a part of the BJP-NDA delegation, told ANI.
The delegation will investigate the circumstances that led to the September 27 stampede, meet with affected families, and submit a report.BJP chief JP Nadda has constituted a delegation, which includes BJP MPs Anurag Thakur, Tejasvi Surya, Braj Lal, Aprajita Sarangi, Rekha Sharma, and Shrikant Shinde from the Shiv Sena, as well as Putta Mahesh Kumar from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). BJP MP Hema Malini is the convenor of the committee.