Protest in front of Raj Nivas sparks tension

Protesters seek action against security officer who pushed the CM in a function; SP announces transfer of official

Tension prevailed at the Raj Nivas on Tuesday after a group of persons suddenly broke the barricades and staged a protest in front of the main gate seeking action against the security officer of Home Minister A. Namassivayam who had allegedly pushed Chief Minister N. Rangasamy during a function last week.

Visuals that emerged from a video of a temple car festival at Villianur, showed the security officer physically making way for Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to reach the place where Chief Minister was standing to pull the temple car.

The Chief Minister was seen leaning back when the security officer cleared the way for the Lt. Governor.

After the video began making the rounds on social media, secretary of the ruling All India N. R. Congress, N.S. J. Jayabal, had on Monday released a statement that the incident was blown out of proportion and visuals were completely misunderstood.

On Tuesday around 11 a.m., a group of people, mostly contract workers in the Public Works Department, suddenly descended near the Legislative Assembly and took out a march to the Raj Nivas. They broke the barricade and rushed towards the main gate and started raising slogans demanding action against the security officer. They also wanted an audience with the Lt. Governor

As the Lt Governor was away, there were only two police constables posted outside the main gate. They tried to prevent the protesters from raising slogans standing in front of the gate. While the sloganeering went on for a few minutes, a police team led by Grand Bazaar Inspector Kannan reached the spot and physically removed the protesters. They were pushed out of the barricaded place.

Once outside the barricade, the protesters pushed against the police cordon, and in the melee, a few of them fell to the ground.