SALEM: A perceived attempt at appropriating the legacy of the late Congress icon, K Kamaraj, by the BJP on his 116th birth anniversary resulted in a clash between workers of the saffron party and the Congress in Salem on Sunday.

Party workers exchanged blows and hurled insults against each other before police intervened. Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan too reached the spot and defused the situation, asking BJP workers to calm down.

Congress workers who arrived at Second Agraharam in Salem city to garland the life-size statue of Kamaraj found BJP flags strung around the statue. Furious, Congress workers demanded that the BJP men remove their party flags. But the BJP workers refused as Pon Radhakrishnan was about to visit the spot and garland the statue. Soon both party members started exchanging blows. After listening to angry complaints from Congress cadres, Radhakrishnan told his party men to remove the BJP flags. Congressmen see the move by the BJP to honour Kamaraj as an attempt to tap the Nadar vote bank.

