While campaigning for the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) candidate for the Erode Lok Sabha Constituency, Selvakumara Chinnaiah, Chief Minister and party general secretary Jayalalithaa lashed out at Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi for fielding former Union Ministers A. Raja and Dayanidhi Maran for the elections. Mr. Raja is an accused in the 2G spectrum scam, while Mr. Maran, she said, was responsible for the Aircel-Maxis deal, after which Maxis was forced to invest Rs.675 crore in the Sun TV group.
Ms. Jayalalithaa also asked how Mr. Karunanidhi could comment on the delay in starting the works on the 660 MW supercritical power plant at the Ennore Thermal Power Station, knowing fully well that clearances from the Central government, of which the DMK was a part of, came late.
“We had to fulfil the due processes of international bidding; we do not know how to rush through the processes, as was done in the 2G spectrum allocation,” she pointed out.
The mandate for a vital national role for the party will enable it to safeguard the welfare of Tamil Nadu, such as forming the Cauvery Management Board to solve the river-water sharing dispute with Karnataka, she added. Ms. Jayalalithaa said the zeal seen among the voters now to root out the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) was akin to that seen during the Independence struggle to remove the British regime.
