Jayalalithaa kickstarts campaign, promises free laptops, 'mangalsutras'

AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa hit on the campaign trail for the Tamil Nadu assembly polls on Thursday and started with an attack on the ruling DMK regime, alleging there was “jungle rule” in the state.

Launching the campaign from Srirangam, from where her ancestors migrated to Mysore, she alleged that the DMK rule has become “a single family” rule.

For Tamil Nadu voters, a windfall awaits irrespective of which front wins the polls. Up for grab are laptops, fans, mixers, grinders, green homes, land for landless and ‘mangalsutra’ for educated girls.

To outsmart her, DMK rival Muthuvel Karunanidhi has offered free laptops to SC/ST students and mixers and grinders to women in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category.

Jayalalithaa has also come out with a series of promises which the ‘aam aadmi’ can not say no to.

In a move to stun Karunanidhi’s offer of mixers and grinders to women in the BPL segment, Jayalalithaa has declared in the election manifesto that she would give each woman a fan, mixer and grinder. She did not stop there. Amma has offered Rs50,000 and four grams of gold to all educated girls from BPL families as their marriage gift.

She also declared that all ration card holders in the state would be offered 20 kg free rice. In addition to this, all homeless in the state would be offered 4 cents or a 300 sq ft Green House costing Rs1.80 lakh. “Our immediate concern will be to increase the power output by 5,000 MW to meet the ever-growing requirement. We will tap all sources of energy including solar, wind and bio mass,” she said.

The AIADMK leader said her objective was to increase the income level of the people and to ensure all-round development of the state. “Each BPL family will get four goats. Nearly 6,000 villages will be provided with 60,000 cows to increase milk production,” she said.

She also promised solar energy parks and village-level bio mass power stations. People above the age of 58 will be given free bus passes. Villages will have old age homes to take care of the greying population.

“Political parties in Tamil Nadu are competing to go to the bottom by announcing these freebies,” a chartered accountant said. He said such offers would make only big dents in the government’s coffers.