If Advani wants to be PM, he can count Jaya out

CHENNAI, Feb 20: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary J Jayalalitha on Saturday declared that her party wo...

CHENNAI, Feb 20: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary J Jayalalitha on Saturday declared that her party would support only Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, while she flayed Union Home Minister L K Advani for creating an unseemly controversy involving Bihar Governor S S Bhandari and tarnishing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s image.

The AIADMK leader, in an informal chat with mediapersons in her party office in the city, declared, “Our support is only for Vajpayee.”

Jayalalitha, who was replying to queries regarding a reported move to replace Vajapyee with Advani as the prime minister of India said she had not heard of any such reports but her party “would definitely support” Vajpayee. “We will not support any change in the prime ministership,” the AIADMK supremo added.

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Lashing out at Advani for the controversy over the Bihar Governor, she said the episode’ had caused damage’ to the image of the BJP-led Government. On the reported squabbles within theBharatiya Janata Party, she observed internal problems would only weaken’ the Government.

In this context, the AIADMK supremo further added that the allies of the Bhatiya Janata Party were not responsible for tarnishing the image of the Vajpayee Government. “None of the allies were responsible for this mess-up. You should direct the question to Advani. Allies are in no way responsible for this,” she said. When reporters recalled a remark by Advani that small parties were threatening the Government, she remarked that Advani’s observations were “uncalled for”. However, her party was committed’ to the Vajpayee Government and was not concerned with internal party conflicts, Jayalalitha said.