Tamil Nadu Chief Minister extends hand of friendship

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa spoke like a seasoned politician who has seen it all. “I wish the new government well. I wish the new Prime Minister well. And I hope that the new government that will be formed at the Centre will be friendly towards Tamil Nadu,” she said. She added that the AIADMK, which emerged as the third largest party in the Lok Sabha after the BJP and Congress, would “function as a responsible political party.” In not attaching an opposition tag to that remark, the party supremo has made a very subtle statement on where she stands in the aftermath of BJP’s massive victory

Heading a state that has often slated the Congress-led UPA for being most unfriendly to Tamil Nadu, particularly on the Cauvery water and power issues, Ms Jayalalithaa has placed her home state as a friendly power in a federal set-up that had been most inimical to her presence in the last three years.

Her fault may have been to trounce her main adversary DMK, which was an UPA partner in 2011 when Jaya turned the tables with an emphatic victory in which her party took close to 200 seats along with her then allies DMDK, CPI(M) and CPI  out of 234t in the state’s unicameral legislature.

Of a possible alliance role in the new dispensation at the Centre, she said in a most pragmatic way that “There is no such situation now.” She has made it clear that while she is not officially an ally, she is a friend in the national framework who expects a reciprocal touch of friendship from the capital.

That she is making preparations already for her reelection in 2016 is to be seen in the way she has treated her euphoric victory.