The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Not a vote against AIADMK Government: Jayalalithaa

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 14, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Not a vote against AIADMK Government: Jayalalithaa

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MAY 13. The Chief Minister and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary, Jayalalithaa, today said the verdict against the AIADMK-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the Lok Sabha election in the State was not a verdict against her government.

In a statement, she said she accepted the verdict with a "bowed head". But the election was meant to decide who would rule at the Centre and did not reflect the people's opinion of the State government. However, leaders of opposition parties were speaking as if the verdict was against the AIADMK Government and demanded her resignation.

Referring to the 1989 Lok Sabha election result, she said the AIADMK alliance won 39 of the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. At the time, the DMK was in power, but the DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, did not consider the verdict as one against his government.

In the 1998 Lok Sabha election, the AIADMK alliance won 30 seats, but the DMK Government did not resign, she said.

Ms. Jayalalithaa also recalled the 1980 election, when the AIADMK won only two Lok Sabha seats. Then Mr. Karunanidhi had said it was the end of the political life of the AIADMK founder, M.G. Ramachandran. But in the Assembly election that followed, the AIADMK registered a massive victory, she said.

The AIADMK faced five byelections after returning to power in 2001 and won all of them. In the Sattankulam byelection, all parties now in the DMK alliance opposed the AIADMK, which however, won the seat contesting on its own, Ms. Jayalalithaa said.

The people were clear about the party they wanted to vote for in a Lok Sabha election and the party they wanted to elect in an Assembly election. "It is strange to ask for the resignation of the AIADMK Government forgetting these historical instances," she said.

The AIADMK believed in working for the welfare of the people irrespective of the verdict of the people. Despite the severe drought and an empty exchequer, the AIADMK Government was working for the welfare of the people, she said, and thanked the people who voted for the AIADMK-BJP alliance.

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