Bereaved family members and relatives of victims, who died after a stampede broke out at actor and TVK chief Vijay's rally on Saturday, mourns outside the mortuary at the Government Hospital, in Karur district, Tamil Nadu, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. Photo: PTI
Karur stampede: A rally that stole children, mothers and faith in a star
A father recounts losing 18-month-old Guru Vishnu in crowd in Vijay's rally; victims' families express despair as TVK leader leaves Karur without consoling them
Among the 40 lives lost in the tragic Karur stampede during TVK leader Vijay’s election rally on Saturday, September 27, was 18-month-old Guru Vishnu.
The visuals of Guru Vishnu’s parents holding him in their arms, begging doctors at the Karur government hospital to revive him, has shattered everyone.
Just a week ago, little Guru Vishnu had begun to utter his first words. His mother, who is speech-impaired, and his father Vimal, a daily wage worker, were filled with joy at his babbling. But the tragedy at Karur has silenced him forever.
“He was crushed in the crowd. No one stopped to help the child and pick him up. We lost him,” said a grief-stricken Vimal.
Shattered
Their house was just two streets away from the rally site. Inside the family’s modest 10x10 room, the child’s tiny body was laid in a glass coffin. His mother pressed her lips against the cold glass, with tears streaming down, making silent gestures, asking her child for one last kiss.
Little Guru Krishna who slipped from the hands of the woman who was carrying him and was crushed in the crowd
Vimal, the father of the child and grandfather Venkatesan burst into tears at the heartrending scene.
Also read: Karur stampede: Probe takes political twists and turns as death toll hits 40
“Vijay said he was everyone’s brother, maternal uncle, and family. My daughter took the child with her to the rally. When Vijay arrived, she wanted to see him. But she fainted in the crowd, and another woman carried the baby. But in that chaos, the child slipped, and the crowd trampled him,’’ explained Venkatesan.
Guru Vishnu’s family is shattered. “Not a single person from Vijay’s party came to console us. We lost our precious child. We lost him,’’ Venkatesan said with uncontrollable tears.
Night of broken families
Like Guru Vishnu’s family, many others have lost their dear ones in the Karur stampede. What was supposed to be a TVK party’s family gathering, a night rally where Vijay told people, “I am your maternal uncle, your brother”, turned into a night of broken families, orphaned children, and graves dug too early.
In another corner of Tamil Nadu, in Vellakovil, Tiruppur district, grief has consumed two more homes. Gokulapriya (29), a young mother, had gone to the Karur rally with her husband Jayaprakash and their child. As the crowds swelled, Jayaprakash insisted on leaving the venue with the baby. But Gokulapriya stayed back, saying she would come back home after catching a glimpse of Vijay.
Within a few minutes, she was trapped in the stampede. Jayaprakash and the child survived, but Gokulapriya never returned. “She said she would just see him and come back. She came to us in a glass box?” asked her relatives.
Gokulpriya, who stayed back at the rally to see the actor-turned-politician Vijay, and lost her life, seen here with her husband
The same night, a family in Vellakovil village lost another father. Manikandan, a cellphone shop owner, father of two, and an ardent Vijay supporter, was crushed in the crowd, leaving his young wife and children bereft. “We have no one for us now. Can Vijay give his life back? We lost him in a terrible manner. The crowd walked over him,’’ said Manikandan’s relative.
Also read: ‘Repeated TVK failures ended in Karur stampede’: Lensman recalls ‘pattern of chaos’
After the post-mortem, a grieving family laid to rest a mother and her two young daughters—placing the sisters side by side in one grave, with their mother in another just beside them. The cries that filled the cemetery resonated with the sorrow of an entire community.
At another funeral, a young pregnant woman clutched her belly, collapsing over her husband’s coffin. “At least let me see him once more,” she cried out amid all the mourning around her.
In despair
Karur residents say that several young men and women who proudly called Vijay as their maternal uncle are full of despair today, as the TVK leader Vijay sent a message via an X post three hours after the stampede and never visited the families to console them.
‘’He had mentioned in his campaign van that he would come. But he left safely to the airport. Though the message about the stampede was already seen in media reports, he decided to leave for Chennai. He never thought about us,’’ cried M Sudha (20), who was a diehard Vijay fan until Saturday.
Also read: TVK rally stampede due to organisational lapses, not police shortfall: TN ADGP
