It’s ADMK vs rest, Jaya readies party for a lonely battle

AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa has given the clearest yet indication that her party would go it alone in the parliamentary elections.‘&#1...

AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa has given the clearest yet indication that her party would go it alone in the parliamentary elections.

‘‘If the state has to get its due rights, our voice should be heard as one in Parliament. For that purpose, our party should achieve 100 per cent success. Only our members should be returned to Parliament,’’ she said in a message to partymen on the eve of AIADMK founder and former Chief Minister late M.G. Ramachandran’s birth anniversary.

This is Jayalalithaa’s first public statement on the Lok Sabha elections, coming after her silence over the past few weeks as the DMK and the PMK quit the NDA. With this, the AIADMK seems to have shut the door on the BJP.

Story continues below this ad

Jayalalithaa is believed to have voiced her opinion in her interaction with party functionaries over the past few days. She told partymen not to worry about alliances as the AIADMK would win all 40 seats on its own.

She had said most political parties which had ridden piggy-back on the AIADMK to electoral victories had later tried to claim credit for even the AIADMK’s victories.

In an oblique reference to the DMK, MDMK and PMK ministers at the Centre she said: ‘‘The only objective of those representing Tamil Nadu at the Centre was to try to scuttle every progressive measure of our government and to plot our downfall.’’