The ongoing Nadigar Sangam elections saw high drama on Sunday afternoon after the news broke that Actor Vishal, one of the main dramatis personae and the leader of the Pandavar Ani, was attacked by the opposition camp led by Sarath Kumar. TV reports say that Vishal was pushed by people of the Sarath camp, but Sarath’s camp says that there was only a small argument between them which is being blown out of proportion.
Here is what we know based on the various interviews given my members of both camps.
This is the version of events according to actor Sonia who is the Vishal camp, as told on Puthiya Thalaimurai. She says that they were all handing over ‘candidate cards’ with list of candidates of each of their camp to those who were coming to cast their vote. Sonia alleges that while they were handing over their candidate cards to the voters, members of the Sarath camp were acting like rowdies and removing those from the hands of the voters, and putting it on the ground. They were instead thumping Sarath camp’s cards in the hands of the voters.
Following this, a lady artist and some other members of the Vishal camp questioned those who were taking away cards from members. Some members of the Vishal camp also then went ahead and gave new cards to those members from who the cards were taken away. This got Sarath Kumar angry, and he allegedly lashed out at a female member of the Vishal camp. This got tempers rising. Vishal then stepped in to protect the female member, and Sarath Kumar walked off. But Sarath’s supporters stepped in with muscle and a scuffle broke out in which Vishal was allegedly attacked. He was then taken to the makeshift studio of a TV channel and given first aid.
But Radharavi and Ramki, who are members of the Sarath camp deny this happened. While speaking to the media Sarath Kumar himself said that the argument broke out because members of the Vishal camp were campaigning in the restricted area. And when members of the Sarath camp questioned Vishal’s team, an argument broke out. Vishal then allegedly came out and made a big deal out of it, says Sarath’s camp.
Actor Vishal has said that he does not want to affect the polling so he will speak out after 5pm.