Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa meets Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
During her meeting, she handed over to the Prime Minister a memorandum detailing the state government’s demands including an additional 1000 MW of power to Tamil Nadu from the central grid.
New Delhi
Hindustan Times
New Delhi
Ruling out the possibility of a political realignment in the near future, Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha made it clear on Tuesday that the Congress would have to take the first step towards making friends with her. AIADMK leader Jayalalitha was on her first visit to Delhi
Considering the DMK leaders’ alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam and the strained ties between the party and the UPA, she hinted that the coalition would have to dump the DMK before seeking her support.
But when asked at a press conference whether she was open to the idea of an alliance with the Congress in case the DMK pulled out, she said, “I cannot answer hypothetical questions ... It’s premature to comment on such questions. No one from the UPA has asked me this.”Considering the DMK leaders’ alleged role in the 2G spectrum scam and the strained ties between the party and the UPA, she hinted that the coalition would have to dump the DMK before seeking her support.
But when reminded of her offer of support in November last year, she said, “The offer was made seven months ago. The situation was entirely different then.”
On textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran of the DMK, who is facing allegations of tweaking rules to help a Malaysia-based company when he was telecom minister, she said if he did not step down on his own, “the Prime Minister should drop him”.
As she wrapped up her "cordial" meeting with the PM, she said she would not meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. “As of today, the Congress and the DMK continue to be partners in the coalition government at the centre. In such a situation, it would not be appropriate for me to call on Sonia Gandhi.” On her plans to contest the next Lok Sabha polls, she said, “It is just been three weeks since I took over as CM for the third time. I am flattered by your question.”
Chidambaram must quit: Jaya
Publish Date: Wednesday,15 June, 2011, at 12:21 PM |
A poised Jayalalitha, who led her All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party to a thumping electoral win only a month ago, also asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran on corruption charges.
Addressing the media after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jayalalitha turned her guns on Chidambaram, saying sternly: “He has played a fraud on the nation.”
“He has not won the election. In fact he lost the election,” she said. Chidambaram narrowly defeated the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga constituency in 2009.
Jayalalitha said the data entry operator in Sivaganga transferred votes secured by AIADMK’s Raja Kannappan to Chidambaram’s credit.
Insisting his position in the cabinet was “untenable”, she added: “He should resign.”
According to official data, Chidambaram won by a narrow margin of 3,354 votes. The result was declared after a lot of confusion and protests.
A peeved Chidambaram hit back yesterday, saying Jayalalitha had shown contempt of court.
“She has made a statement questioning my election to the Lok Sabha in 2009. She knows that her candidate Raja Kannappan has filed an election petition in the Madras High Court which is pending since September 2009. Her statement is, therefore, gross contempt of court,” Chidambaram said in a statement.
He said Jayalalitha “has the habit of starting on the wrong foot. She has always had utter contempt of court proceedings and hence a statement today is not at all surprising.”
“Besides, her candidate Raja Kannappan also contested the May 2011 assembly elections and lost from one of the segments falling within my parliamentary constituency. Perhaps she would say that, that election result was also fraudulent,” the statement added.
But Jayalalithaa, 63, appeared supremely confident. Clad in a magenta sari, diamond earrings in place, she was addressing her first press conference in
Her blazing two-day trip to
She did not. Instead, she made it clear that since the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam were allies in the central government, “it would not be appropriate to meet (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi.”
Jayalalitha said any question of the support she had offered to the Congress before the Tamil Nadu election “simply does not arise” today.
In comments that will not please the Congress, which has taken an increasingly belligerent stand vis-a-vis civil society activists Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, she said “any Indian citizen has the democratic right to protest against corruption.”
Speaking about her defeated archrival DMK with contempt, she said many more from the party were destined to go to jail for corruption.
“The DMK is facing the heat today, the DMK supremo’s family is facing the heat today. Many of the DMK leaders and leading lights of the party are facing a slew of corruption cases. Some are in jail, many more are likely to go to jail.”
Jayalalitha was equally harsh on Maran, who has been accused in connection with the allocation of second generation spectrum when he was the telecommunication minister in 2004-07. His successor, A Raja, is in prison, also over corruption charges.
“Maran should step down from his post. If he fails to do so, the PM should drop him.”
In her meeting with the prime minister, in which National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon was also present, she discussed in detail the situation in
Jayalalitha said Sri Lankan Tamils needed to “lead a life of dignity,” enjoying the same rights as the Sinhalese majority.
She reiterated her objection to
On June 8, the AIADMK-dominated Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution seeking economic sanctions against
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