NEW DELHI: Rekindling an old rivalry, AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, on her first visit to Delhi as the new chief minister of Tamil Nadu, demanded Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s resignation for fraudulently winning the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Sivaganga.
“Chidambaram has not won the parliamentary election. In fact, he lost the election. He has played a fraud on the nation,” said Jayalalithaa, and added that the data entry operator in the Sivaganga constituency transferred votes secured by AIADMK candidate Raja Kannappan to Chidambaram’s credit in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. “This is how this fraudulent victory was secured,” she said demanding Chidambaram’s resignation.
Stung by Jayalalithaa’s allegations that came soon after she met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram responded strongly by issuing a statement. He said Jayalalithaa has “the habit of starting on the wrong foot” and her statement is in “gross contempt” of the Madras High Court where AIADMK candidate Rajakannappan filed an election petition in September 2009. “Her candidate Rajakannappan also contested the Assembly elections in May 2011 and lost from one of the segments falling within my parliamentary constituency. Perhaps, she would say that election result was also fraudulent,” said Chidambaram.
On her first visit as chief minister after decimating archrival DMK in the recent Assembly elections, Jayalalithaa met the PM regarding a number of issues that included a request for sending a team of state MLAs to Sri Lanka to find out ground realities pertaining to the Lankan Tamils.