V. Gopalasamy, or Vaiko as he is known, was arrested after he entered Chennai before dawn with thousands of supporters in open defiance of a government order asking him not to enter the city.

Police freed him eight hours later, and the MDMK chief said he would address a massive public rally.

Vaiko arrived at Tambaram, about 50 km from here, Monday, having begun his "Awareness March" at Tirunelveli town Aug 5.

Vaiko and 3,000 of his party members have been on a walking tour through 1,025 km of the region. They had pledged to end the march in Chennai on Wednesday, the birth anniversary of C.N. Annadurai, founder-leader of DMK, of which Vaiko was once a leading light.

Vaiko had planned to reach Annadurai's memorial on the beach here.

On Tuesday, police banned all processions on the route Vaiko's men had planned to take. Hundreds of policemen were deployed at the city's southern entry point and on the beach road.

Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha Tuesday accused Vaiko of "attempting to create confusion and bring a bad name" to the government by threatening to defy the ban.

Vaiko had earlier announced that his march into the city would start at about 10.30 a.m. Wednesday. This was the time the chief minister had chosen to garland Annadurai's statue on the Marina beach.

Vaiko, however, started his final leg of the march to Chennai at about 1 a.m. and reached the Annadurai memorial at around 3.45 a.m., with the police failing to stop the large emotionally charged crowd.

Joint Commissioner of Police C. Sylendra Babu finally ordered their arrest.

Vaiko and six of his party leaders were arrested at about 4 a.m. Wednesday. "I am courting arrest to save my boys," he told reporters while boarding the police van.

After detaining the MDMK leaders for almost eight hours, they were released just after noon.