The sitting DMK MLA of Ambur constituency has caught up with immense criticism after leaving the party cadre to carry his costly sandals with his bare hands while reviewing the lake that was damaged in the wake of the heavy rainfall recorded recently in the area.

According to the reports, Ambur and its vicinities of Thirupathur district had seen a heavy rainfall on June 30 due to which Lake Ponnapalli ran out of its capacity. The huge amount of outflow of water had completely damaged the dyke that was built before twenty years and the rainwater had inundated about 30 acres of farms resting close to the lake.

Upon knowing the development, Ambur MLA Vilwanathan, who belongs to the DMK party, had visited the damaged areas along with the party men. When the legislator visited the affected areas, he found that the lake and the path that connects to the dyke were filled with muds after which he removed his sandals on the dry land and started walking on the muds with barefoot. 

Immediately after he removed his sandals, Sankar, who belongs to the Venkatapuram Panchayat DMK, took the sandals of the legislator with his bare hands and followed him by carrying the sandals which erupted controversy over the incident. The visuals emerged from the spot shown that the MLA was walking on his barefoot while Shankar follows right behind him with the sandals. 

Some of the people who witnessed the incident had videographed and shared the footage across social media. The incident happened on June 30 and initially, the footage was spread locally and it was shared widely across the state couple of days back after which the legislator has been strongly criticized for letting the party man carry his sandals.  

Many criticized that the legislator has made the party man, who belongs to the backward community, to carry his costly sandals in his bare hands. It has stirred massive outrage from the Dalit outfits of the state which claimed that the legislator forced the backward party man to carry his sandals. The Republican Party of India has carried out protests in Vellore, Ranipet, and Gudiyatham on Tuesday to condemn the act and they have planned to carry out the protests against the legislator in Ambur on Wednesday. 

The party stated that the sandals of the legislator cost Rs 6,500 and he forced the party man of the schedule caste to carry the sandals with the view of getting rid of the muds on the lake. However, according to the reports, legislator Vilwanathan had denied the allegations and maintained that the party man had carried his sandals without his knowledge and stated that he has explained what has happened to the party's leadership.

He added that his rival camp has been looking for political gains by imposing baseless allegations against him. According to the reports, this has been a second such incident in the state in recent times. Earlier in February 2020, Tamil Nadu Minister for Forests Dindigul Sreenivasan has met with controversy when he called the young boys of the backward community to remove his slippers when he visited the temple in the Nilgiris district.