Congress MP Jothimani Questions TVK’s Karur Rally Planning After Stampede Tragedy
Update: 2025-09-29 12:58 IST
A day after a tragic stampede at a massive rally organised by Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) in Karur, Tamil Nadu, claimed the lives of at least 40 people and injured scores more, Congress MP from Karur, Jothimani, spoke out strongly against the event’s organisation. She raised concerns over poor planning and highlighted serious lapses in decision-making that may have contributed to the disaster.
Addressing the incident, Jothimani pointed out that Karur is not equipped to host large-scale gatherings in its city centre, especially when such events coincide with high public activity days. She noted that the rally took place on a “payday” — a day when thousands of people were already out on the streets for routine activities, further crowding the area. “Karur is not a city designed to handle such huge inflows of people in its core areas. These events are usually held on the outskirts for safety reasons,” she said.
Jothimani questioned why TVK leaders had not been informed that the chosen date and location were unsuitable for hosting such a large crowd. According to her, bringing in 25,000–30,000 people to a small city without adequate arrangements for crowd control reflected a lack of proper planning. “It looks like no proper risk assessment was done before holding the rally,” she added.
The MP stressed that large political events should involve careful coordination with local administration, police, and safety authorities to prevent crowd-related tragedies. She urged authorities to examine the causes behind the stampede and ensure that strict protocols for crowd safety are enforced in future political gatherings.
This tragedy has sparked a wider debate over safety measures at political rallies in India, especially in smaller towns where infrastructure is not prepared to handle huge surges in population. Political parties and authorities face mounting pressure to learn from the incident and adopt better crowd management systems to avert similar disasters.