Meanwhile, the BJP on Saturday condemned the arrest of its functionaries by police for protesting against the removal of the party flag at Panaiyur on the East Coast Road in Chennai.

BJP national co-in charge of Tamil Nadu Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said alleged that the arrest of some of the BJP cadres on the city outskirts was ‘purely politically motivated, uncalled for and unwarranted’.

For protesting against the removal of the party flagpole and damaging public property, the state police arrested the party’s sports and skill development cell state president Amar Prasad Reddy, besides party functionaries Surendra Kumar, Balakumar, Kanniappan, Vinod Kumar, and Senthil Kumar.

The flagpole, allegedly erected on land belonging to the highways department, was removed in the early hours of Saturday by civic authorities and police after a complaint.

A large number of BJP workers who had gathered close to Annamalai’s house attempted to prevent the police from removing the flagpole and the party’s IT wing state secretary Vivin Bhaskaran was severely injured during the protest, the party said.

Police said they had to detain a large number of party workers and later let them off. About six persons were arrested for causing damage to public property, they added.

“The removal of the flagpole placed near the residence of Tamil Nadu state president K Annamalai in Chennai outskirts and the arrest of BJP karyakartas is strongly condemned… Curbing democratic rights is an unconstitutional act,” Reddy said.

Meanwhile, Annamalai announced that his party would erect 10,000 flagpoles across the state and that the final one would be erected at Panaiyur where it was “forcibly removed by the police.”

With agency inputs.

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Updated: 21 Oct 2023, 10:40 PM IST