Jayalalithaa congratulates Modi on ‘magnificent victory’

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said she looked forward to ‘meaningful cooperation’ between his government at the Centre and her state

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi exchange greetings at a meeting held in New Delhi. A file photo.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has greeted the Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi, saying she looked forward to ‘meaningful cooperation’ between his government at the Centre and her state.

“I congratulate you on the magnificent victory in the 16th Lok Sabha Elections. I wish you and the Government under your stewardship the very best...,” she said in a demi-official (DO) letter to Modi, adding, she looked forward “to an era of meaningful co-operation” between the Centre and the state government.

Ms. Jayalalithaa’s May 16 letter, coinciding with counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections at the end of which BJP established simple majority by itself, was released by the state government on Saturday.

>While the AIADMK chief and Mr. Modi are said to share cordial relations, with the two leaders attending the swearing-in ceremony of each other after winning the respective assembly elections in 2011 and 2012, the two parties had sparred in the last leg of the just concluded Lok Sabha elections.

>Ms. Jayalalithaa, in particular had claimed that her state was ahead in development index than Gujarat, even calling it a ‘myth’, which was countered by the saffron party’s state unit.

Mr. Modi for his part had pitched the BJP-led NDA in Tamil Nadu as a ‘viable alternative’ to both AIADMK and DMK.