AIADMK cadres exude optimisim
Ruling party unruffled by DMK decision.
Chennai: The DMK’s decision to go it alone in the Lok Sabha polls next year has not ruffled the ruling AIADMK which has already chalked out a roadmap to strive for victory in all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry.
Senior leaders in the party feel that AIADMK led by J. Jayalalithaa will be a “game changer” in New Delhi and that DMK’s decision to go it alone would only isolate the Congress facing the heat of scam after scam including 2G spectrum.
Dismissing DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s stand as “pretense”, a senior leader said DMK was known for going back on its decisions and its somersault on the issue of foreign direct investment in the multi-brand retail sector was well known.
“He should write this (stand on alliance) on water. On several occasions he had supported either the Congress or the BJP. He distanced himself from the BJP branding it communal. Now he says A.B. Vajpayee is a good leader. He (Karunanidhi is opportunistic and can’t be trusted,” fumes AIADMK presidium chairman E. Madhusudhanan.
Addressing his party’s general council, Karunanidhi said on the DMK’s alliance (in 1999-2004) with the BJP, :was with the party under Vajpayee and not Advani, who was not considerate to Tamils. Vajpayee was receptive to our demands and hence we had an alliance and some of our party men were ministers in his cabinet.”
“Whatever Gujarat chief minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi can claim about Gujarat’s development, our Amma has surpassed that quite comfortably and she has all virtues to become Prime Minister,” another leader said.
The party, which has decimated the DMK in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2011, is confident of scoring another big win in the Lok Sabha elections by bagging all the 40 seats.