Jaya to be sworn in Tamil Nadu CM on May 16

AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalithaa, who led her party to a landslide victory in the assembly elections, will be sworn-in as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for a third substantive term tomorrow.

63-year old Jayalalithaa will take oath as Chief Minister at 12.15 pm tomorrow at the University of Madras Centenary Building here, Chief Secretary S Malathi announced after the AIADMK chief met Governor S S Barnala and staked her claim to form government.

Earlier, she was elected unanimously Leader of the AIADMK Legislature Party at a meeting of 146 newly elected MLAs held at the party headquarters here.

Armed with the letter of party legislators electing her as their Leader, Jayalalithaa met Barnala at the Raj Bhavan and staked her claim to form the government.

A Raj Bhavan release said Barnala had asked Jayalalithaa to form the "ministry at the earliest."

Emerging from her meeting with the Governor, Jayalalilthaa, who had earlier ruled the state from 1991-96 and 2001-06, told reporters that her immediate priority would be to restore law and order and bring back the state economy on the rails.

"My first priority will be to restore law and order in the state. The state's economy has been totally derailed and there has been a lot of regression during the last five years. It is almost as if like having gone back to dark ages," she said adding the state had to be brought back to the path of growth, development and prosperity.

Describing as ''perennial,'' the acute power shortage situation, believed to be one of the factors that brought down the DMK, she said all issues would be addressed one by one.

She assured people that they need not worry about their safety and security, promising that law and order would be "back on track".

On reports about Congress President Sonia Gandhi inviting her to Delhi for tea, she only said the UPA Chairperson had greeted her on her party's win over phone and did not elaborate.