Tamil Nadu
BJP leaders arrested in Coimbatore (L); Pattukkottai (R) (Twitter)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders who tried to hoist the party flag poles in different parts of the state today as per the party's announcement of putting up 100 flag poles daily for 100 days from 1 November were arrested by police.
The announcement was made by state president K Annamalai, after BJP members who protested against the removal of a flag pole outside his residence in Chennai's Panaiyur were lathi-charged by police.
Writing on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Selva Kumar, the vice-president of the party's industrial wing, stated that the Coimbatore police had arrested hundreds of BJP functionaries, including state vice president P Kanagasabapathi and Coimbatore district president Balaji Uthamaramasamy, who had gone to replace an old flag with a new one at an existing flag pole in the city's Masakalipalayam area.
Further, he stated that this was reminiscent of how the DMK government in 1973 arrested AIADMK workers for putting up party flags.
BJP state secretary A Ashvathaman posted that he had been arrested when trying to hoist a party flag in Pattukkottai in Thanjavur district.