Ramadoss opportunistic: Jayalalithaa

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 8. Signalling the end of her party's ties with the PMK, the Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary, Ms. Jayalalithaa, today accused the PMK founder, Dr. S. Ramadoss, of opportunistically forming and breaking alliances to serve his own interests.

Claiming that Dr. Ramadoss was merely building up excuses to walk out of the AIADMK-led front, Ms. Jayalalitha denied that she had ever promised to give the PMK a Rajya Sabha seat. ``Neither did Dr. Ramadoss seek a Rajya Sabha seat during the time of the Assembly election, nor did I promise him a seat,'' she said in a statement.

Insisting that the agreement with the PMK was only meant for the Assembly election, she said there was no talk at all about the Rajya Sabha election at that time.

Refuting charges that the PMK had been allotted seats which were not winnable, she said actually, the PMK was given seats in which the AIADMK had ``100 per cent winning chances.'' In seats where the PMK had no chance of winning, the AIADMK had given it seats as per the wishes of Dr. Ramadoss himself.

The PMK, she said, should realise how it won 20 seats in the present Assembly when it got only four in the previous Assembly. ``I hope Dr. Ramadoss won't forget the fact that it was I who sent his party to the Lok Sabha in the 1998 Lok Sabha election,'' she added.

Disputing the claim of Dr. Ramadoss that she had not given him due respect, she said that at no point of time she had shown disrespect to leaders of alliance parties. Nor did she keep them waiting for hours on end.

Dr. Ramadoss, she said, was angry that she had not given his party an opportunity to contest the Rajya Sabha election. ``I do not know why he expects us to give up one Rajya Sabha seat when the AIADMK can win only four of the six seats coming up for election.''

Ms. Jayalalithaa also added that the people would know why Dr. Ramadoss was walking out of the front for the sake of one Rajya Sabha seat. There was no reason for the PMK to desert the AIADMK- led front within months of the 1998 Lok Sabha election. Even now, the truth was that there was no real reason for his exit from the front.

In this context, Ms. Jayalalithaa recalled that after the 1998 Lok Sabha election, when she alone was invited to the meeting called by the BJP, she had talked to Mr. Vajpayee and asked him to call the leaders of allied parties such as Dr. Ramadoss too to the meeting.

Denying that she had fielded weak candidates in Pondicherry, she said no leader of a political party would do that. It was only to honour the commitment given to Dr. Ramadoss on Pondicherry that the AIADMK did not forge alliance with the Congress and the TMC in Pondicherry. If the AIADMK had indeed allied with the Congress and the TMC, then the alliance would have won all the 30 seats, she said. ``I had made such a sacrifice only to keep the promise made to Dr. Ramadoss on Pondicherry,'' she added.

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