All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary Jayalalithaa on Thursday termed the protracted wrangling that preceded the seat-sharing agreement between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Congress a “farce” enacted to divert attention away from various problems faced by their alliance.
In a statement here, she alleged that the DMK's threat to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, the war of words between the two parties and the ultimate rapprochement were all aimed at making people forget the 2G spectrum investigation, price rise and a number of other problems.
“Plum portfolios”
“All this muscle flexing is mere drama,” Ms. Jayalalithaa said, adding that even during the swearing-in ceremony of the UPA government in 2009, DMK president M. Karunanidhi behaved in a similar fashion and got “plum” portfolios for his party nominees.
But when it came to issues that were vital to Tamil Nadu such as the massacre of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Cauvery water dispute or the Mullaperiyar problem, repetitive hike in price of petroleum products and killing of Tamil Nadu fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy, “Mr. Karunanidhi never threatens to pull out of the Central government. He merely sends letters to Prime Minister,” she said.
Ms. Jayalalithaa also alleged that the DMK had become a “major source of mortification” to the Congress.
Appeal to people
The AIADMK leader said the people of the State had started seeing through all these “games” and appealed to them to give the DMK-led alliance a fitting reply at the hustings.
