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Jaya mum on fate of tie-up with Congress

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham general secretary J Jayalalitha today remained non-committal on continuing the alliance with the Congress saying that the pact was forged only for the Lok Sabha election.

Responding to media queries on whether the AIADMK would align with the Congress for the 2001 assembly election in Tamil Nadu, she said, ''I would not like to comment on it now.''

Jayalalitha dismissed as comments of a 'political novice' the observations attributed to Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal that in view of the party's poor showing in Tamil Nadu and Bihar, the Congress was reconsidering its alliances with the AIADMK and RJD.

Though Sibal was a brilliant lawyer, as far as politics was concerned he was a novice and no other senior leader had made such an observation, she pointed out.

She said the Congress' failure to name a prime ministerial candidate in the just-concluded election was a mistake which had contributed to that party getting less number of seats.

Jayalalitha said she herself had not projected Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate during the campaign since the Congress itself had failed to do so.

Asked whether she regretted her party's withdrawal of support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government leading to the mid-term poll, Jayalalitha said she only looked at the future and did not regret for anything in the past. However, she disowned any responsibility for toppling the Vajpayee ministry.

She would not hazard any guess about the stability of the new government. ''How can I say anything now?'' she said.

When a reporter cited an opposition leader as saying that the government would be stable since there was no Jayalalitha factor (to destabilise it), she said, ''That is your allegation.''

Now that the BJP and the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham had won the election, she expected both to be more vindictive towards her. The DMK had been trying to eliminate her politically by foisting numerous cases, she alleged.

She conceded that if the Tamil Maanila Congress, instead of floating the Third Front had joined the AIADMK alliance, they could have won more seats.

She, however, scoffed at the TMC's claim that they would re-establish Kamaraj rule in Tamil Nadu. Kamaraj himself could not bring that back, she said.

UNI

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