ADMK to go solo in LS elections: Jaya

CHENNAI: The AIADMK would go it alone in the next Lok Sabha elections and win all the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu to assert the state’s rights at the Centre, party head and chief minister J Jayalalithaa said on Monday.

“We can neither depend on the BJP nor the Congress. We have to chart our own path and decide our future,” she said at the AIADMK general council meet.

Jayalalithaa raked up the Cauvery water-sharing dispute with Karnataka to announce the AIADMK’s independent course, hitting the Bharatiya Janata

We can neither depend on the BJP nor the Congress. We have to chart our own path and decide our future.

J J AYALALITHAA

Tamil Nadu CM & AIADM chief

Party’s efforts to woo her for a tie up for the general elections due in 2014.

She also distanced her party from the Congress, a move that revived talk of her national ambitions.

“We have to contest the parliamentary elections independ- ently and emerge victorious in all the 40 seats (39 in TN and one in Puducherry) to acquire the power required to secure the legitimate rights of the state, including in the Cauvery dispute,” Jayalalithaa said. Making it clear that her party would not support the two national parties, Jayalalithaa said, “A rare opportunity knocks only once in the life of a person or a party and when it comes, we have to seize and utilise it to our advantage.”

Leaving no room for doubt, she added, “The Lok Sabha polls present such an opportunity. Using that, we have to get to the Centre and acquire power.”

A senior AIADMK MP who did not want to be named said Jayalalithaa’s decision was politically sound. “If needed, a postpoll alliance will be more beneficial. Our leader’s focus is to ensure that the AIADMK plays a pivotal role in government formation at the Centre.”