Native our bodies polls can’t be used as yardstick to measure our power, says Jayakumar
Native our bodies polls can’t be used as yardstick to measure our power, says Jayakumar
Senior AIADMK chief and former Minister D. Jayakumar, who was arrested in three circumstances, together with an incident of manhandling throughout the current native our bodies elections, is out on conditional bail. In an interview with The Hindu over the cellphone from Tiruchi, he alleged that the DMK authorities was illiberal, and had arrested him as a warning to the AIADMK. He additionally spoke about his social gathering’s poor present within the city civic polls. Excerpts.
The AIADMK attributed political motives to your arrest. How do you justify this cost?
Definitely, it’s political vendetta. Any elected authorities ought to tolerate criticism made towards it, and it’s evident that there isn’t a freedom of expression. I’ve been fairly vocal in my criticism of varied electoral assurances, which haven’t been applied by the DMK authorities. I’ve nothing private towards him [Chief Minister M.K. Stalin]. I’ve solely been making criticisms politically. Like what former Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai mentioned about cup and saucer [He likened the Legislative Assembly and the Council to a cup and saucer], we have to steadiness it. However this authorities doesn’t have tolerance. The DMK authorities has solely two motives – none ought to criticise them, and they’re going to proceed doing no matter they’re doing. There is no such thing as a productive motion. My arrest is barely an act of political revenge.
As a former Regulation Minister, was it applicable so that you can have taken the regulation into your palms and compelled a person [suspected of booth rigging] to take away his shirt and parade him on the road?
I didn’t have any mala fide intention towards him. He’s an anti-social factor, going through a number of circumstances together with chain snatching and stealing bikes and dealing in ‘one quantity’ lottery. He was into sales space rigging, which is able to kill democracy. Although I’m a former Minister who has held numerous posts, as a district secretary, I want to guard my social gathering’s pursuits. How can we hold watching when somebody is concerned in illegality? I don’t know him personally, however since there are a lot of circumstances towards him, we should always not let him hurt others. Additionally, we didn’t parade him; we solely handed him over to the police. Although he threw stones on the police, as an alternative of taking motion towards him, they foisted circumstances towards me. Even the opposite case was political. The cost of land seize is principally unsuitable. They’re considering that my arrest must be a warning to my social gathering. However I’ll set up my place legally, and dharmam will win.
The AIADMK confronted a humiliating defeat within the current city native our bodies polls. Why has the social gathering misplaced assist even in its conventional strongholds resembling western and southern Tamil Nadu?
We can not use the native our bodies polls to evaluate the power and attain of a celebration, as a result of in contrast to the Meeting elections, when the Election Fee of India conducts the polls, the native our bodies elections are carried out by the State Election Fee, which is clearly a puppet of the ruling social gathering. As I mentioned concerning rigging and sales space seize [by the suspect], there have been malpractices. In T. Kallupatti, it was established within the courtroom that the Returning Officer had acted below the immense strain exerted on him [and declared a DMK candidate elected]. We are able to solely think about in what number of locations such incidents occurred. So, we can not use native our bodies elections as a yardstick for [measuring] our power. We polled over 1.46 crore votes throughout the Meeting election. Watch for the [2024] parliamentary election, and you will notice our rise. We have now all the time risen powerfully after each loss.
The BJP has exited the AIADMK alliance. Will there be a revival of ties, contemplating that the BJP has supposedly gained extra from the alliance?
It [the alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP] was there yesterday. It isn’t there right this moment. About tomorrow, my social gathering management will resolve. It’s a coverage resolution. We can not say one social gathering gained extra as a result of each social gathering has its personal votes. Even the PMK and the DMDK had been with us previously. You and I understand how many votes the BJP, the AIADMK or another social gathering has. Our seat-sharing settlement might be based mostly on that. My social gathering’s management will resolve these issues on the applicable time.
Is the twin management of the AIADMK an obstruction to its progress?
All these criticisms got here up after our Amma’s [Jayalalithaa] demise. These are solely small points in an enormous social gathering just like the AIADMK. We have now confronted a number of such issues previously, however we overcame them. So long as we’ve got the legacy of ‘Puratchi Thalaivar’ (M.G. Ramachandran) and ‘Puratchi Thalaivi’ Amma and the legendary ‘Two Leaves’ image, there isn’t a finish to our social gathering.
Some voices inside the AIADMK nonetheless favour Jayalalithaa’s aide V.Ok. Sasikala. A requirement for her re-entry got here even from the farm home of social gathering coordinator O. Panneerselvam. Is the social gathering divided on Ms. Sasikala?
She had herself mentioned she is going to step apart [from politics]. The present scenario additionally exhibits that. It could not have any main influence on our social gathering. How are you going to say that we’re divided when we’ve got clearly acted towards his [O. Panneerselvam’s] brother over his assembly together with her? We have now expelled him, and he [Mr. Panneerselvam] has not mentioned something overtly about it.
What do you assume is the best way ahead for the AIADMK?
Our future is vivid as a result of folks can now see that the DMK is unable to implement its electoral assurances. The DMK’s failure on this regard will solely assist us.
