Coimbatore, March 31: Hitting out at arch-rival AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalithaa over the issue of corruption, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said people had not forgotten how she flaunted her wealth in the past.
Coming down on Jayalalithaa for accusing him and his party of looting the exchequer, Karunanidhi, addressing an election meeting here, said people had not forgotten how she flaunted her wealth by wearing gold and diamond ornaments on her foster son”s wedding during her 1991-96 regime.
“Where did the money come from. Was it her ancestral property? It was the people”s and tax payers” money,” Karunanidhi alleged.
Accusing Jayalalithaa of deliberately seeking adjournments over “silly reasons” for the last 12 years in the wealth case against her pending in a Bangalore court and waiting for the completion of polls, he said she knew that once she was convicted and sentenced in the case, she might not be able to contest elections.
“Conviction and sentence can only be postponed but cannot be stalled. Even if the special court exonerates her, the Government would approach the higher court, where we can expect her conviction and sentence,” he said.
Karunanidhi asked the people to recollect how Jayalalithaa “suppressed” government employees, labourers and backward class people when she was chief minister.
He asked the electorate to compare the manifestos of both DMK and AIADMK, and decide whom to vote for.
“Who do you believe can fulfil these promises. Karunanidhi or Jayalalithaa?” he asked.
Blaming the previous AIADMK regime for the present power shortage in the state, Karunanidhi said that in a few years Tamil Nadu would become a state with surplus electricity.
He also announced several additional promises, describing them as an additional manifesto of DMK. These include supply of cattlefeed and high quality coconut seedlings to farmers at subsidised rates and waiver of interest on housing loans taken from cooperative societies.
He assured that the DMK, if voted to power, would find out a permanent solution to the effluent discharge problem in hosiery town of Tirupur, where over 700 dyeing and bleaching units had been shut down on court orders.
The situation in Tirupur was a serious concern for him and the party, he added.
Karunanidhi said he was making the additional promises in view of demands from alliance parties and candidates.
——–PTI