A juicy interlude 8230;

CHENNAI, APRIL 28: It was a juicy interlude over the high-yield wonder8217; grapes that grow exclusively in the Hyderabad gardens of a VVIP from Tamil Nadu. And with the target obviously AIADMK chief J Jayalalitha, the Assembly was in splits for a while today.

It all started with an innocuous query on the measures initiated by the Government to increase the production of seedless grapes in Tamil Nadu. Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugham, responding to the query, during the Question Time, reeled off statistics that the grape cultivation was undertaken on a total extent of 2,326 hectares of land in Tamil Nadu and that the total production was in the order of 44,250 metric tonnes.

Grabbing the chance, TMC chief whip, R Chokkar, wondered how the grapes in a particular garden in Hyderabad yielded a whopping revenue of Rs 10 lakh annually, obviously referring to Jayalalitha8217;s claim in the Income-Tax returns filed by her recently.

Not letting go of the chance to take a jibe at his bete noire, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi quipped that such magic grapes grew only in Andhra Pradesh.