Jaya maintains the lead, promises IT the moon

CHENNAI: While the DMK is yet to come out with its candidate list or manifesto for the May 8 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, AIADMK general secretary and chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday maintained the early starter advantage, launching her party’s election manifesto with the threat of finishing off the DMK. “This is going to be the DMK’s last election,” she thundered.

In a bid to checkmate the DMK, which is likely to take credit for bringing in IT firms and industries to Tamil Nadu through its Union ministers, a major portion of the 114-page AIADMK manifesto dwelled on the same subjects. Jayalalithaa claimed credit for bringing companies like Hewlett Packard, Philips, Accenture, General Electric, Nokia and Microsoft to Tamil Nadu.

“In 2005 alone, 400 new IT firms came up in the state at the rate of more than one company a day and Tamil Nadu emerged as the first state in the country to connect almost all parts with optical fibre cables. Software exports rose from Rs3,116 crore in 2000-01 to Rs15,000 crore in 2005-06,” the manifesto says. The promises include five lakh jobs in the IT sector in the next five years and self-employment opportunities for IT professionals.

Jayalalithaa found fault with the Election Commission for stalling the ongoing government programmes in the name of model code of conduct. “Stopping the ongoing schemes is unheard of. Even the distribution of flood relief has been stopped,” the chief minister said.