Jayalalithaa stakes claim to form govt, swearing-in ceremony tomorrow

Agencies

Chennai, 15 May 2011: AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa met Governor SS Barnala today and staked claim to form the government in Tamil Nadu. She will be sworn in as the Chief Minister at the Madras University’s Centenary Hall at 12:15 pm on Monday.

 

"Our priority will be to restore law and order in the state. We have got to get the state’s economy back on the rails. People of Tamil Nadu won’t have to worry about their safety," she told reports after meeting the Governor.

 

"Sonia Gandhi congratulated me on the phone," she said, parrying questions on the Congress president’s reported invitation to her.

 

In the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, Jayalalithaa along with her allies won 199 of the state’s 234 assembly seats - a skyscraper of a victory in a bitterly-fought political landscape. During her election campaign, Jayalalithaa had predicted that with her allies, she would win upwards of 185 of the 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu assembly. She has proved that was not just political bluster.

 

After trouncing the DMK in the polls, Jayalalithaa is set to take action against her arch rival and DMK chief Karunanidhi and his family. Speaking to NDTV, AIADMK’s V Maitreyan said the DMK must be held accountable for whatever it did, and that fresh cases would be slapped on the party.

 

"Tamil Nadu has been made bankrupt. There’s no government, no law and order in Tamil Nadu. Naturally, the DMK has to be accountable for what they have done in the last five years. The amount of misuse of power by DMK has been acknowledged by the Election Commission," said the AIADMK MP.

 

When asked if fresh cases will be slapped against the DMK, Mr Maitreyan said, "Won’t go around with a lens, but the party that did all this must be accountable to the people of Tamil Nadu."

 

The AIADMK chief’s victory speech on May 13 was also devoted to a rigorous inquest of the wrongs of the DMK government that she has booted out. "Over the past five years, Tamil Nadu has been totally ruined...the economy has been ruined," she said. "It’s not an easy task to rebuild the entire state. When the house itself has been damaged and debris is strewn all around, it is not an easy task to rebuild the house."

 

Analysts say the 2G scam is one of the main reasons why the DMK got battered in the elections. One of the party’s senior-most leaders, A Raja, is now in jail for allegedly masterminding the scam when he was Telecom Minister in 2008. Karunanidhi’s daughter, M Kanimozhi, has been accused of accepting a 214-crore bribe along with Raja.