CHENNAI: Constituents of the Democratic People's Alliance led by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will soon finalise seat sharing for the local body elections, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa said here on Thursday.

She told reporters that the alliance partners would form panels to hold talks with the nine-member committee of the AIADMK.

Accusing the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Government of indulging in "self-deception" by denying any death due to chikungunya, Ms.Jayalalithaa said the disease, which had "afflicted lakhs of people in the State, had claimed 238 lives."

The Government's failure to tackle chikungunya would be highlighted during the election campaign. Her role in making the Centre reverse its decision to disinvest in the Neyveli Lignite Corporation and forcing the State Government to drop its proposal for creating a satellite town covering 44 villages in Kancheepuram district would also form part of the alliance's election plank.

The alleged flaws in the distribution of colour televisions and wasteland development and distribution programmes would also be brought to light, she said.

The Union Health Ministry's decision to accord autonomous status for JIPMER in Pondicherry would also be criticised as over 80 per cent of the beneficiaries belonged to Tamil Nadu, she said.

On the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance's demand for a White Paper on "non-clearance" of a large number of files by her during the AIADMK rule, Ms.Jayalalithaa said that she had never allowed any backlog of files. During 2001-2006, she had dealt with as many as 60,000 files. In some cases, she had to send back the files to the department concerned with queries. No Chief Minister could sign "blindfolded."

About AIADMK MLA S.V.Shanmugam's recent remarks favouring merger of the Dravidian parties, she quoted a Tirukkural couplet saying there was scope for atonement for any sin but not for ingratitude. Asked if he would be expelled, Ms.Jayalalithaa said her reply should be taken as a "trailer", indicating further action "as time passes by."

She welcomed the decision of the State Election Commission not to use electronic voting machines for the local body elections. The AIADMK favoured use of ballot papers for all elections.

MDMK panel

General secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) Vaiko announced the decision to form a committee under the leadership of party chairman L.Ganesan to hold seat-sharing talks with the AIADMK.

It would also have MDMK deputy general secretaries Gingee N.Ramachandran and C.E.Sathya, political advisory committee secretary Tirupur S.Duraisamy and election wing secretary T.K. Subramaniam.

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