"No Panel For Manipur, Kumbh Stampede?" Stalin On BJP MPs' Karur Visit

The political row over the stampede in Tamil Nadu's Karur last week - at a rally headlined by actor and TVK chief Vijay, and in which 41 people died - escalated Friday after Chief Minister MK Stalin criticised the BJP for sending a delegation of opposition MPs on a fact-finding mission.

Stalin pointed out no panel was sent to BJP-ruled Manipur after ethnic violence in May 2023 or the stampede during the Maha Kumbh in Uttar Pradesh, also ruled by the BJP, in January. He slammed the BJP for trying to score brownie points before next year's state election.

"No probe panel was sent to Manipur or for Kumbh... but delegates were sent to Karur immediately," the DMK leader said. The dispatch of a delegation is "not due to care for Tamil Nadu... but due to the election" and the BJP is looking for "political gain" from Karur, he said.

The Chief Minister also criticised the dispatch of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was born in Madurai and is a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, to Karur as a 'representative' of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the federal government. The jab at the Finance Minister comes amid a separate row between the Tamil Nadu government and centre over disbursal of funds.

On Tuesday the delegation - led by the BJP's Hema Malini, a hugely popular actor from the Tamil film industry - visited Karur and met the families of victims and those who were injured.

Hema Malini criticised Stalin's administration for not providing a larger ground. "For a star of his stature, giving a small road... was unfair. Many women and young girls had come to see Vijay. If a bigger space had been allotted, this tragedy would not have happened," she told reporters.

The TVK asked for more space and the government should have granted it, she said.

Allegations and counter-allegations have been chucked about since the tragedy.

The DMK has accused the TVK of failing to listen to police warnings; Tamil Nadu Police said on-ground officers' warnings to event organisers about the crowd build-up were ignored.

The TVK, meanwhile, has claimed a 'conspiracy' by the DMK to unsettle it before the election. In his first remarks since the stampede Vijay accused Stalin of 'vendetta politics'.

The Congress, an ally of the DMK, has kept a relatively low-profile so far; Karur Lok Sabha MP S Jothimani told NDTV the focus must be on helping the injured and the families of those killed.

The BJP has sensed an opportunity to force the DMK on the back foot. The eight-member delegation sent to Karur this week has demanded a 'report' from Stalin - although it has no legal or constitutional mandate to ask for one - detailing the 'primary factors' behind the stampede.

Ex-Union Minister Anurag Thakur, one of the delegation MPs, wrote to Stalin on Wednesday, demanding to know "measures being planned to ensure such incidents do not re-occur'.

Meanwhile, the TVK has approached the Madras High Court asking for a federal investigation into the stampede and, in anticipation of the DMK denying permission, directions to ensure Vijay is not prevented from visiting the families of those who died.