Jayalalithaa accessible, says Venkaiah Naidu

Chennai: BJP senior and Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, sprang a surprise in contradicting his Cabinet colleagues on the Tamil Nadu CM “being inaccessible” in saying that Ms J. Jayalalithaa was indeed accessible and had discussed development issues with him twice.

Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Prakash Javadekar had recently alleged that the TN chief minister Jayalalithaa was inaccessible. They claimed her “inaccessibility” had prevented the Centre’s development schemes from reaching the people of the state. “That is their experience. I have met her twice and discussed issues related to the ministry,” Mr Naidu told reporters in Coimbatore on Sunday.

Trying to throw light on the contradictory statements of Union ministers, BJP national executive member L. Ganesan, said, “There is no contradiction in what the (three) ministers say. Even Mr Venkaiah Naidu is right in pointing out his experience. But Mr  Naidu’s experience is different from that of Goyal or Javadekar and it will not cause any confusion among the BJP here.”

Articulating the ruling party’s take on the issue, C. R. Saraswathi, AIADMK spokesperson, said, “The sudden new aggression is because they could not be in Amma’s alliance “Until recently, the BJP ministers had showered praises on our Amma. They had said Amma was efficient and her state is the best. While attending the Global Investors’ Meet (in Chennai) Union ministers Pon Radhakrishnan and Nirmala Sitharaman appreciated the good work of Amma and now they made a U-turn,” Ms Saraswathi added