Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa took potshots at the opposition parties, particularly the DMDK, saying she neither expected appreciation from her political rivals for ensuring development in their constituencies nor required their support at the hustings. She asserted that the AIADMK would emerge victorious from all the 234 Assembly constituencies in 2016 elections.
“Not just the Mayiladuthurai constituency, the AIADMK will win all the 234 Assembly constituencies in 2016 Assembly polls,” she told Arul Selvan, DMDK legislator from Mayiladuthurai. Intervening the speech of Mr Arul Selvan in the Assembly on Friday, Ms. Jayalalithaa said, “I don’t expect anyone to thank me for the announcements that I had made. Even in the recent Lok Sabha polls the AIADMK had contested alone and won 37 seats.”
Arul Selvan put up a meek defence saying he appreciated her gesture in announcing to start a new co-education arts & science college in Mayiladuthurai. His remark that no political party had consistently won from Mayiladuthurai constituency evoked the ire of electricity minister Natham R. Viswanathan who said, “Victory or defeat is part of electoral battle, as you say, but your party has been miserably losing all the elections.”
When Arul Selvan remarked that his ‘Captain’ (DMDK founder Vijayakanth) had campaigned for the AIADMK in the previous Assembly elections, housing minister R. Vaithilingam intervened to dare the DMDK to contest alone in next Assembly elections and find out in whose favour people’s mandate would be. “You have not realised that people have already rejected the DMDK,” he said.
