Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar has been a prominent face of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in north Chennai. A five-time MLA from Royapuram cosntituencey, Mr. Jayakumar asserts that the existing arrangement of collective leadership in the party has found acceptance among workers. In an interview with The Hindu on December 15, he dismisses the contention that his party is the BJP’s ‘B’ team. Excerpts:
What are the issues being raised by the ruling party, which is facing the R K Nagar by election sans a towering leader?
We are doing everything to translate into action Amma ’s (Jayalalithaa) dream and goal that the party should run for 100 years and the government should carry on her agenda of people-centric policies and schemes.
As far as we are concerned, we are highlighting Amma ’s achievements. Compared to South Chennai, North Chennai is heavily congested and it has a large number of slum dwellers. After Amma got elected [from R K Nagar], the coverage for the provision of basic amenities has gone up from 40% to 80%. She had laid the foundation stone for a ₹100-crore bridge on Cochrane Basin road, which will be executed. Voters are realising the kind of work that has been done.
Besides, R. K. Nagar is a traditional bastion of the AIADMK. During Thalaivar ’s [M G Ramachandran] time, in the 1977 Assembly elections, the only constituency that the party won in Chennai was R K Nagar. We will definitely win the constituency with a huge margin
Have the party members accepted the collective leadership of the party [with O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami as coordinator and co-coordinator]? How are they working in the constituency?
It is because of acceptance of the members that we could have sufficient strength, support for the collective leadership at the general council meeting. In a big party such as ours, there will be differences of opinion on one or two issues but that would not get reflected in our election work.
As we are facing the first election after the death of Jayalalithaa and the Election Commission’s re-allotment of the symbol of “two leaves” to us after freezing it, the party workers are in a jubilant mood.
What is your response to the perception that rebel leader T T V Dhinakaran will cut into votes of the AIADMK substantially? One opinion poll has even predicted that he will emerge victorious.
Surveys need not be taken seriously. Did not many surveys at the time of 2011 Assembly elections say that the DMK would win? It was us who won eventually. People are the best judges.
I feel that the DMK and TTV [Dhinakaran] are colluding with each other in working against us. There are several instances to substantiate this. Would any genuine, sincere follower of Amma contest against ‘two leaves,’ the symbol given by Thalaivar to us? His ultimate goal is to ensure that the AIADMK’s votes are split so that the DMK wins.
How do you view the challenge being posed by the DMK, which is contesting the by-election with the support of many parties including the Congress, Left, VCK and MDMK?
For a by-election, if they (DMK) are taking so many parties along with them, this only shows their weakness. As far as the AIADMK is concerned, we had won many elections singlehandedly. So, we are not concerned about how many allies they have.
Is E Madhusudanan, the AIADMK’s septuagenarian nominee, being able to cope the fight from other candidates, who are younger than him?
As far as the common man is concerned, the government is doing its job well on many fronts including law and order and he or she stands to gain when the ruling party gets elected. Besides, there is a vote bank for us. When the strength of the common man gets combined with that of our vote bank, we will win hands down.
I believe that age is no factor in politics and I can tell you a number of veterans who emerged victoriously in elections.
What is your response to Mr. Dhinakaran’s allegation that the by poll may get postponed only to prevent him from getting elected?
As far as Mr Dhinakaran concerned, he has been handling matters in a wrong way. It is up to the Election Commission to decide with regard to issues of violation of the model code of conduct. I can tell you that we are sticking to the model code in every respect but he (Mr Dhinakaran) has been taking steps to violate it.
How do you rebut the charge that the AIADMK is the ‘B’ team of the BJP ?
It is the DMK and Mr Dhinakaran who are seeking to create such a picture artificially. The Amma government has been performing well and we are all seasoned administrators, having been trained by Amma .
We are being friendly with the Centre only to get funds from the latter for policies and schemes that will help our State’s expeditious development.
Take the instance of fishermen’s issue. You need the support of the Defence and External Affairs Ministries and that of Fisheries department in the Union Agriculture Ministry. How would you handle the issue without the support of the Central government ?.
But, what was the track record of the DMK? They had only fought for plum portfolios at the Centre. What did they do when the Union government was dependent on them for survival? Is the present Union government dependent on us for survival? Yet, we are making efforts to get approvals of the Union government. The other day, [Union Minister for Shipping and Highways] Nitin Gadkari came here and announced schemes for ₹ 1 lakh crore.
What is your government doing to address the grievance that North Chennai, as a region, is much neglected ?
There is no basis for the charge that the area is being neglected. Being a thickly-populated place, the area requires additional efforts constantly to see to it that basic amenities are maintained properly and upgraded suitably. It was during the first spell of Amma’s regime [1991-96] the Royapuram bridge was built at a cost of ₹16 crore.
Even though the area has several facilities, the DMK has been attempting to give an adverse picture about it. What did they [the DMK] do when their nominees held the posts of Chennai Mayor and Local Administration Minister.
To transform the area fully, the present government has asked Planning and Development department to conduct a survey through a consultancy firm on the requirements of north Chennai. This initiative was taken when I held the subject. Once the master plan is ready, we will implement it in a phased manner.
