PUDUCHERRY: Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member P Kannan expressed his solidarity with and extended moral support to AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, while appealing to the party cadre to maintain calm and peace and not indulge in any agitation which would affect the public.
Briefing newsmen at a press conference here on Monday, Kannan, while refusing to comment on the verdict against the AIADMK chief, said the sentence might please her political rivals, but pained the public and has created a massive sympathy for her. The good governance of Jayalalithaa and the welfare measures she implemented had made her popular. Other States are also emulating her schemes. No one should think this verdict to be the end of her political life, he added. “Those who think it is going to be the end of her era will be proved wrong by the people, as she would rise like a phoenix,” he said.
Asked whether he continues to be in the Congress since he has distanced himself from the party and that it had sought action against him for not supporting its candidate in the Lok Sabha elections or he has alternative plans, Kannan said he was actually in the Congress, brushing aside questions on his political allegiance. “Wherever I am , I am with the Congress,” he said.
Kannan said he was not a renegade and has never done anything for selfish gains or benefit, and added that political decisions were taken in the interest of the people.