JOIN USAmid fast moving developments and innumerable visitors from top officials, well-wishers to film stars swarming her Poes Garden residence this evening, Jayalalitha in a brief media interaction said once the new government was formed, she had “a difficult task” on hand.
Regretting that over the past five years, “Tamil Nadu has been totally ruined,” Jayalalitha said it had been happening time and again in the past, when she had assumed the office twice earlier in 1991 and 2001. “In 2001 when I took over we found the state’s economy was totally ruined and everyone said Tamil Nadu was beyond redemption; even the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Planning Commission almost wrote off the state,” she said.
“But we restored the state’s fiscal health and made it a foremost state in the country,” Jayalalitha claimed. The AIADMK legislature party would meet and elect her as its leader, which is likely to be held on Saturday. Then Jayalalitha would meet the governor with the list of elected MLAs to formally stake claim. The term of the present Assembly expires on May 16, but it is not yet clear whether the swearing-in of the new ministry will take place by then.
Jayalalitha lauded the Election Commission for conducting a free and fair election, which enabled the “people’s real feelings to be expressed” through this voting. Later in a special message broadcast over ‘Jaya TV’, Jayalalitha said, “first of all, I would like to convey by profound gratitude to the people of Tamil Nadu for this very decisive mandate they have given us in this election. “It is not really our victory; it is in fact, a victory for the people of Tamil Nadu,” Jayalalitha said.