Chennai: Poll-2014 threw up two conquerors Narendra Modi as the 14th Prime Minister of India with an absolute majority for his BJP and J. Jayalalithaa as the monarch of the Tamil people winning 37 of the 39 seats for her AIADMK. However, one must concede that the TN chief minister has emerged a bigger achiever as she had fought single-handedly to score such an unprecedented win, also decimating the DMK so decisively that the rival party failed to win even a single seat. Besides, she got the third position in the Lok Sabha for her party, first time ever for a Tamil Nadu regional party.
Not only did Jayalalithaa have no allies in the battle but also there was no significant partner within her camp to share the campaign burden. She began the electioneering much before the others hit the road and covered all the constituencies, addressing mammoth rallies to drive home her war cry that the UPA’s 10-year corrupt reign had brought misery upon India even as its partner DMK had betrayed the Tamils in Tamil Nadu and in Sri Lanka.
“I am doubly happy that this victory has come on the day my government completed three years of good work for the people and is stepping into its fourth year in office”, Jayalalithaa said in a thanksgiving statement.
Terming it as “historic, unparalleled and unprecedented victory”, Jayalalithaa thanked “my beloved people of Tamil Nadu” and also her AIADMK members for their support and participation in achieving that glory. She had sought votes for her candidates promising that she would secure Tamil Nadu’s rights from the Centre, which was hitherto hostile and discriminatory. The TN poll verdict should put the Congress and its ally DMK, who she alleged had scaled new heights of corruption, in their place.
