THIRUPATTUR, Feb 5: All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) supremo, J Jayalalitha did not campaign at Thirupattur on Wednesday, despite the huge crowd, as she arrived at the meeting venue only at 10.30 pm, 30 minutes after the scheduled closing time for campaigning. She took the stage but did not utter a word in an obvious bid to make a point to the opposition and to the people that she was a stickler for the rules.The party drew a comparision with the Marina rally of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led front where the party has charged Prime Minister I K Gujral of violating the election code of conduct by continuing to speak till 10.20 pm in spite of the restriction imposed by the election commission.
Jayalalitha's second day of compaigning began from Vellore but the convoy of about 45 cars could not make it to Thirupattur on time as she was forced to make many speeches on the way, hoist party flags and also unveil statues of M G Ramachandran (MGR), founder of the party. The crowd which hadbeen waiting for more than two hours were informed that she would address them at 2 pm on Thursday.
Earlier, addressing a well attended public meeting at Vellore, she accused the ruling DMK government of going back on its election promise of reopening all the tanneries that have been closed pursuant to a Supreme Court order for not complying with the pollution control norms. She said AIADMK government had sanctioned Rs 2.68 crore as subsidy for setting up a common effluent treatment plant (CEPT) but the present government has done nothing for the tanneries to overcome their problems. The affected workers have also not been provided any relief.
Jayalalitha was obviously playing to the gallery going by the way she had structured her speech and the crowd seemed to be lapping it up.
She said: ``Mamanukku St George kottai, marumaganukku sen kottai, maganukku chennai pettai, avargalluku innum padavi vettai, podavennuma ivargalukku votai'' which loosely translated means the uncle (M Karunanidhi) has St GeorgeFort, where the secretariat is housed, Red Fort for nephew (Murasoli Maran), and the `fiefdom' of Chennai for the son (M K Stalin) to highlight the ``family's lust for power'' and sending the crowd into raptures. It was this lust for power of the entire family that had forced an election on the people which was costing them Rs 1000 crore, she claimed.
She also charged the United Front government with failing to solve any of Tamil Nadu's long pending problems such as Cauvery problem despite having as many as nine ministers in the central cabinet.
She continued to devote much of her address to highlighting the non-performance of DMK government at the State. She said ``you can buy gold today, can you buy onions'' emphasising the inability of the state government to control prices.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
