The Hindu : Jayalalithaa begins campaign today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 09, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Jayalalithaa begins campaign today

By R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, MARCH 8. Political parties are beginning their Lok Sabha poll campaign this week.

The All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary and Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, will kick off her campaign, addressing a meeting near the Slum Clearance Board headquarters in Central Chennai tomorrow. The same day she will seek votes for the South Chennai candidate in the city suburbs. She has chosen Madurantakam venue for introducing the AIADMK candidates on March 10. The Chief Minister's multistage, 34-day tour is spread over two months.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president, M. Karunanidhi, will hold his party's first election meeting here tomorrow. He has selected Chennai to introduce the DMK's candidates. In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, the party won all the three Chennai seats - North, Central and South. Even in the 2001 Assembly elections, in which the DMK was routed, it won nine Assembly seats in the city and suburbs. Mr. Karunanidhi begins his electioneering tour on March 22 from Kancheepuram, a town his mentor, C.N. Annadurai, preferred for launching poll campaigns. Both the AIADMK and the DMK had to tinker with their tour programmes, planned earlier, after the poll date was announced. The Congress will come out with its schedule only after its candidates were finalised, while the others, including the Pattali Makkal Katchi, the Left and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have begun work at the grass roots.

The MDMK general secretary, Vaiko, who has been granted exemption from court appearance till May 8 in the trial of a POTA case against him, will launch his two-month campaign from Tiruchi on March 10. The MDMK is expected to release its manifesto in the first week of Mr.Vaiko's campaign.

Leaders of the Democratic Progressive Alliance will share the stage on March 14 at a public meeting organised here by the Indian Union Muslim League.

It will coincide with the opening of the IUML's State headquarters.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign will gather momentum once the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, begins his `Bharat Uday Yatra' from Kanyakumari on March 10.

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