The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday said the party would become “Red Fort Express,” embarking on the victory path towards Red Fort in Delhi [meaning that the party should be in power at the Centre].
Ms. Jayalalithaa told members of the party general council that “people of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are there to wave the green flag. I would be the engine driver. You [workers] would ensure that the train and its passengers – candidates of the AIADMK – would reach Red Fort in Delhi safely and victoriously.” She added that “this would certainly happen.
[Two arches, replicating the exterior of the Red Fort and Parliament buildings, were put up on the road leading to the venue of the party general council].
Recalling how the party turned itself into the “Fort St George [the seat of power of the State government] Express,” Ms. Jayalalithaa told her party colleagues that the AIADMK captured power six times, thrice each under the leadership of M.G. Ramachandran and herself.
Coming down heavily on the United Progessive Alliance government at the Centre, she reiterated her charges against the Centre on a host of issues concerning the State and said the Union government had been ‘vindictive’ towards Tamil Nadu.
Terming the Central government as “anti-people government,” she also criticised it for “being ineffective and weak” on a range of subjects. Only if the AIADMK emerged victorious in the Lok Sabha elections would the country’s progress and security be assured. She said the theme of her party during the poll campaign would be “peace, prosperity, progress.”
Earlier, the party adopted a total of 16 resolutions. It pulled up the Union government on the issues such as participation at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo last month, proposed training to officers of the Sri Lankan Navy and attacks on fishermen of Tamil Nadu.
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