Ardent devotees tonsure their heads in grief

Coimbatore: Emotions ran high as people paid floral tributes to portraits of ‘Amma’ placed at various street corners in Coimbatore on Tuesday. People also gathered in large numbers at Gandhipuram, even as a group of her ardent devotees tonsured their heads in grief in the red fields near Puliyakulam.

More notably, AIADMK women cadres gathered on the roads from Monday night onwards in the Puliyakulam area and remained in front of ‘Amma’ portraits kept in the party’s ward office in Puliyakulam for more than 24 hours without food and sleep.

Many of them fainted and were taken to CMCH and given first aid. Hundreds of women cadres gathered in the ‘Ethaya Thaivam Maligai’ party office to pay homage to ‘Amma’.

Further, AIADMK cadres displayed portraits of ‘Amma’ in more than 100 wards in the urban segments. Every residential welfare association in Coimbatore made arrangements to pay tribute to ‘Amma’ by lighting candles in front of her portrait.  With candles in hand, thousands of people gathered to pay floral tributes at Sungam junction and in prime junctions of the city like Gandhipuram, Nanjundapuram-Ramanathapuram junction, Singanalloor, Aathupalam, Ukkadam, Karumbukadai, Kuniyamuthoor, Sundrapuram, Sugunapuram and Vadavalli. Flower vendors in ‘Poomarket’ paid homage with tonnes of flowers to a huge ‘Amma’ picture kept there.