Jaya Calls For Deve Gowda Govts Ouster, Fresh Polls

In a reversal of stand, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All-India Aanna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary J Jayalalitha yesterday called for the Deve Gowda ministrys ouster from the Centre and favoured a mid-term poll.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Jayalalitha, who was released from central prison on Friday after a 27-day incarceration on corruption charges, said that the sooner the Deve Gowda government bows out of office, the better for the country.

Only three months ago at the AIADMKs general council meeting, Jayalalitha had hailed Deve Gowda as the best choice for the Prime Ministership in the circumstances.

Jayalalitha said that the United Front government had failed in all fronts and its only common minimum programme (alluring to the CMP of the Gowda government) was to cling to power.

Election should be held after the exit of the Gowda government, Jayalalitha said, but refrained from predicting how soon the ministry would fall.

Jayalalitha alleged that conspiracies were hatched to destroy her party during and after the elections and also when she was in prison. But, all these had become day dreams, she said.

Jayalalitha said that her morale, which was always high, had only multiplied after her imprisonment.

She said that her party was no more in alliance with the Congress.

She ruled out her contesting the by-election from the Pudukottai assembly seat. However, her party had decided to contest the elections, she said adding that she was appealing to political parties in the state to accept her partys candidate as the opposition common candidate, the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said.

She claimed that the AIADMK was the major party in the state and it would demonstrate its strength by winning the Pudukottai assembly seat.