Jayalalithaa

Chennai, May 12: Jayalalithaa, who won her Andipatti seat by a big margin, will not be the leader of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu. She will not even attend Assembly, not unless it is “important”.

The outgoing chief minister said today that her “partymen have said that it may not be advisable for me to come to the Assembly” and that she was heeding their advice.

“Nobody can forget how I was attacked and humiliated in the Assembly on March 25, 1989 (Jayalalithaa, then the Opposition leader, was abused and assaulted by DMK legislators and ministers, one of whom pulled her sari) and some of those who humiliated me that day will again be back as ministers in the new DMK ministry,” she explained.

In 1991, the ADMK led by Jayalalithaa was voted to power. When her party was routed in the 1996 election, she too lost from the Bargur seat in Dharmapuri. The ADMK won again in 2001. So this is the first time since 1989 that Jayalalithaa could have become Opposition leader.

Instead, the ADMK legislature party elected former interim chief minister . Pannerselvam as its leader and K.A. Sengottaiyan as deputy leader.

Former IT minister D. Jayakumar will be the chief whip.

But Jayalalithaa added: “If it is necessary, I will come to the Assembly.”

When it was pointed out that the ADMK had targeted M. Karunanidhi, accusing the DMK leader of not attending the House for even a day in the past five years, Jayalalithaa said: “I am keeping away from the Assembly for good reasons.”

The ADMK chief refused to see the election results as a debacle for her party. “No, it is not a debacle. We have won 61 seats.” The result “is not a setback for us (ADMK) as we have increased our vote percentage, but the setback is for Tamil Nadu”, she said.

Power in the hands of the DMK is like “a garland given to a monkey”, Jayalalithaa added.

Although her party has just begun to analyse the poll defeat, Jayalalithaa said: “We did not have a strong alliance. Whatever seats we have won is virtually on our own.” The ADMK-led alliance won 69 seats of the 234 in the state.

Disagreeing that the poll results showed the “end of one-party rule in Tamil Nadu”, Jayalalithaa said coalition at the state level “is a bad thing”.

“Let us see whether this government lasts for one year,” Jayalalithaa said.