Jayalalithaa said, “Karunanidhi has brought shame to Tamils at a global level.”

Jayalalithaa said, “Karunanidhi has brought shame to Tamils at a global level.”

The 23rd death anniversary of matinee idol and AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran was celebrated by AIADMK Party. Buoyant AIADMK partymen besieged the picturesque Marina beach in Chennai on Friday [24-12-2010] morning to pay tributes at MGR’s memorial along with their leader, J Jayalalithaa, bringing traffic on the Beach Road to a standstill for a few hours. With the assembly elections slated for May next year, the death anniversary this year was held on a special note with enthusiastic cadres shouting slogans hailing MGR and Jayalalithaa.


The spectrum controversy and the questioning of former Union minister A Raja by CBI have come as a major morale boost for the party, out of power for the last five years. The mood along the Marina was one of celebration as cadres came in hordes, not just from Chennai but from many parts of the state. Elsewhere in the state too, partymen organised functions to mark the anniversary, garlanding portraits and statues of MGR as popular songs from his films provided the background score.


Virtually kicking off her election campaign from her mentor’s memorial, Jayalalithaa urged party workers to work hard towards bringing the party back to power and “explain to the people the scams dogging the DMK government”. Even some of the senior leaders, who had been distanced from the party and its leadership, attended the function.


Normally, Jayalalithaa, accompanied by her party seniors, would spend about 15 minutes to pay her respects at the memorial. “This time she was there for 45 minutes,” observed a senior party leader. Murugan, a party cadre, said Jayalalithaa even retraced the party’s history and how MGR had nominated her as a party propaganda secretary while addressing cadres in an impromptu speech. “She explained why it was important to defeat the DMK, which will prove a major boost for party workers,” Murugan said.


Later speaking to reporters, a beaming Jayalalithaa, apparently happy with the huge turnout of cadres, said, “Even international journals like the Washington Post, New York Times and the BBC find it hard to believe that corruption to the tune of Rs 1.76 crore had been allowed to take place without anybody trying to prevent it.” Urging the people to teach the DMK a lesson in the forthcoming assembly election, she said, “Karunanidhi has brought shame to Tamils at a global level. People should teach the DMK a lesson in the forthcoming election and forever prevent the party from coming to power.”


The AIADMK partymen later took a pledge at the memorial to follow MGR’s ideals and work hard towards bringing the party back to power in the state.


Let us wait and see who the winner in the next election is. You can view the scenes of Jayalalitha paying tributes to MGR memorial thro “You Tube”.