Tamil Nadu state Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa greets BJP leader Narendra Modi before the oath taking ceremony, in Ahmadabad, Dec. 26, 2012. (AP)December 26, 2012
Jaya’s ‘go for a kill’ diktat to fetch her PM’s post?
TUESDAY, 25 DECEMBER 2012 23:38 KUMAR CHELLAPPAN | CHENNAI
The AIADMK ministers and MLAs are working round-the-clock to ensure the victory of the party candidates from the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies (39 in Tamil Nadu and one in Pondicherry). Since the day she was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on May 16, 2011, Jayalalithaa has been exhorting her party cadre to work for winning all the 40 Lok Sabha seats.
The AIADMK went on a mission mode with the declaration by P Dhanapal, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly on November 30 during the golden jubilee celebration of the Assembly that the “whole country is waiting for the day when our Amma hoists the national Tricolor at the Red Fort.” Interestingly, he made the declaration in presence of President Pranab Mukherjee who was the chief guest of the day. Amma too has asked her cadre to go for a ‘kill’ so that she would end up as the king maker in the post-election scenario in New Delhi.
The line up and team members for the “knock-out round matches” are yet to be announced. But it is almost certain that the AIADMK front will go to the Lok Sabha polls sans Vijayakant’s DMDK and the CPI(M), Jayalalithaa’s allies during the 2011 Assembly elections. With the AIADMK and the DMDK parting ways immediately after the Assembly elections, Vijayakanth had only one option available for his political survival and that was to patch-up with the DMK and M Karunanidhi. Enough hits have been given by both Karunanidhi and Vijayakanth that they would contest the 2014 Lok sabha election together.
But, a veteran political commentator says that there is a possibility of the CPI moving towards the AIADMK camp. “The personal equation D Pandian, the CPI state secretary, enjoys with Jayalalithaa is a crucial factor. The CPI as well as Pandian have not criticized Jayalalithaa even once during the last one year,” he pointed out.. What baffles the Tamil Nadu voters is the position of the Congress vis-à-vis the DMK-led front. The Congress was a tough bargainer and managed to seize 65 seats to contest in the last assembly election from the DMK. But it ended up with just five seats and the party is yet to come out of the humiliating defeat. Karunanidhi wastes no opportunities to belittle and ridicule the Congress though in the open he sings paeans to Sonia Gandhi. The indifference shown by Rahul Gandhi towards Karunanidhi has not gone down well with the DMK cadre. Though he visited Chennai many times in the past, the young Gandhi had never bothered to visit the nonagenarian DMK leader, a ritual followed without failure by all Congress leaders.
The Congress won eight Lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu in the 2009 election. The tenure of three of its prominent Rajya Sabha members- B S Gnanandesikan, GK Vasan and Jayanthi Natarajan- are coming to an end by 2013 and 2014. It is unlikely that these leaders could get re-elected to the Rajya Sabha as the numbers in the current Tamil Nadu assembly do not favor them. That means the Congress should get at least 11 seats to contest from Tamil Nadu in the 2014 election . There are reports that Vijayakanth have been given 15 seats by the DMK. Karunanidhi wants 25 seats to strengthen his bargaining power in the post election scenario.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/118080-jayas-go-for-a-kill-diktat-to-fetch-her-pms-post.html