Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu), March 7: Jayalalithaa threw in her lot with Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s fortunes and placed Sonia Gandhi in the firing line as she released the ADMK election manifesto, picking the climax of the Mahamaham festival to lend the exercise a touch of sacredness.

Announcing her party’s intentions in Chennai yesterday, the Tamil Nadu chief minister said she would strive to establish a government under the leadership of Vajpayee, a “son of the soil and a patriotic Indian”.

There was “grave danger to the country’s security and sovereignty” from the “opportunistic and unprincipled” alliance formed by the Congress in Tamil Nadu, the manifesto said. As the combine included the DMK, the MDMK and the PMK, “which continues to support terrorist and secessionist forces”, it needed to be kept under watch.

Along with Vajpayee’s party, the ADMK would help India emerge as a “superpower with a vibrant economy, a stable law and order situation and ensure protection of the integrity and sovereignty of the country”.

With Sonia as the obvious target, the manifesto talked about persons of foreign origin occupying high constitutional posts. As the “guardians of the nation like the President, the Prime Minister, the Vice-President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the three service chiefs had vital responsibility of protecting India’s security and sovereignty”, persons who held such offices should necessarily be Indian-born citizens, it said.

Pointing out that Sonia had retained her Italian citizenship for 16 years after marriage, it wondered how “patriotic” Indians could consider handing over the country’s leadership to such a person. Sonia had become an “Indian citizen” by compulsion than anything else and by virtue of Rajiv Gandhi’s position as Prime Minister, it claimed.

The manifesto said it would urge the Centre to amend the Constitution to ensure Tamil Nadu could continue with 69 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for backwards, most backwards, scheduled castes and tribes.

It would also get the next government to take swift measures for the release of Tamil Nadu’s “rightful share of Cauvery waters” and push for nationalisation and interlinking of rivers and making all 22 languages “official languages”.

Although Jayalalithaa stayed away from Mahamaham — the once-in-12-years festival is called the Kumbh mela of the south — her regime spent huge sums of money to create infrastructure facilities over the last three months. This could cause worry to Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar as Kumbakonam falls within the Mayiladuthurai Lok Sabha constituency which he is expected to contest.

While the Congress is yet to officially name its candidate, ADMK nominee .S. Maniyan has already created a splash with graffiti and publicity campaigns.