The message was loud: elections are not too far away. Addressing a massive gathering at the western front that the DMK has begun laying siege to,AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa sought to inspire her cadres to prepare for the polls,a make-or-break challenge for the party. Coming a fortnight after the DMK government celebrated the multi-crore Tamil Conference,the protest on Tuesday at the same venue,Coimbatore,was Jayas reply to the ruling party and other sceptics who have begun questioning the overall health of the party after a series of desertions. Attacking the DMK and its president,CM Karunanidhi,Jaya recounted the allegations against its leaders,particularly Union Telecom Minister A Raja. She alleged that the Chief Ministers pet projects are corruption-driven and listed out the woes of the public. Quoting extensively from party founder and former chief minister M G Ramachandrans speeches and dialogues and songs from his films,Jaya told the hundreds of thousands of cadres that the tomorrow,of elections and glory,was theirs. Get ready for election work. The coalition that you hope for will be formed. I will take care of that. You should take care of voting them out, she told the party members. Interestingly,Jaya took care not to take on Karunanidhis alliance partner,the Congress,with which her party is hoping to forge an alliance in the Assembly elections. This show of strength comes at an opportune moment for the party,hit by a series of reversals in bypolls and intra-party issues. The AIADMK could not win even one of the 11 bypolls which have been held since the state government assumed power four years ago,including those constituencies where its members resigned and defected to the DMK. Among the biggest and more recent setbacks was the recent switch over of former minister Muthusamy of Erode,despite Jaya herself requesting him not to. By the time she got in touch with the hurt regional leader,he had made up his mind due to alleged mistreatment and lack of respect. Former minister T M Selvaganapati from neighbouring Salem had joined the DMK few years ago,and was recently rewarded with a Rajya Sabha seat that was seen as a message to any leader from the AIADMK who was willing to cross over.
