Tamil Nadu: 75-year-old man campaigning for Modi dies after alleged attack by DMK-Congress supporter

A 75-year old supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi died after he was allegedly attacked by a suspected supporter of the DMK-Congress alliance following a wordy duel near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, police said Sunday.

Police said they arrested Gopinath who got into an argument with the elderly man while the latter was seeking votes for the AIADMK-BJP alliance at Orthanadu late Saturday.

In a fit of rage, Gopinath attacked Govindarajan who was also a fan of AIADMK founder late M G Ramachandran.

The man collapsed and died on the spot, police said.

Gopinath was arrested Sunday and produced before court which remanded him to judicial custody, they added.

Police said Gopinath was stated to be a supporter of DMK-Congress alliance supporter. 

Polling for 39 Lok Sabha seats and by-elections for 18 Assembly seats will be held simultaneously in the state on April 18. 

The DMDK is part of the NDA in the state, which also includes the AIADMK, BJP, PMK and Tamil Maanila Congress among others.

On the opposite side, the DMK  will lead a rainbow coalition comprising of the Congress, CPI(M), CPI, MDMK, VCK, IUML, KMDK and IJK. 

Voting for the 543 Lok Sabha seats is to be held in seven phases: April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. The first phase of polling for 91 seats took place on April 11. Counting will be done on May 23.

(With PTI inputs)