Jayalalithaa consoling a family member of a victim of a stampede that occurred at a flood relief distribution centre in K.K. Nagar, Chennai, on December 18, 2005.
| Photo Credit: M. Vedhan
The tragic crowd crush that claimed 41 lives at actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) rally in Karur last weekend is the worst such incident at a political gathering in Tamil Nadu. However, similar tragedies have also occurred at State-managed events. Among the most infamous was the 1992 stampede during the Mahamaham festival in Kumbakonam. That stampede was widely believed to have been triggered during a ritual attended by then Chief Minister Jayalalitha (as she spelled her name at the time) and her close aide Sasikala Natarajan (as she was then known).Equally grim were the deaths of 50 people in two stampedes, both of which occurred on Sundays, in Chennai, 20 years ago, illustrating how lessons in crowd management are rarely learned. Published - October 01, 2025 06:00 am IST
