Focus of national parties will not be on states: Jayalalithaa

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Monday said the focus of national parties will be centred around Delhi and will not be on Tamil Nadu and more so on the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation.

She said India is akin to a big joint family and could be led by a single party. But the states are like small sub-families. Only the heads of those sub-families are interested in the family welfare and not the heads of joint family.

Campaigning for her party AIADMK's candidate Ganapathy P Rajkumar for the mayoral election in Coimbatore around 500 km from here, Jayalalithaa said: "The BJP may rule India. But it certainly does not have any interest in upholding the rights of Tamilians."

Citing the Cauvery river water dispute with Karnataka, Jayalalithaa said BJP will not take steps to set up the Cauvery Management Authority as it fears losing its vote bank in Karnataka.

Similarly, in the case of Mullaperiyar Dam issue, the communist parties in Tamil Nadu will take one stance and their Kerala unit will take another. The parties central unit will remain silent.

She said her government was implementing various welfare programmes to protect people from rising prices due to the wrong economic policies of the central government.

Bypolls for the local bodies are slated for Sep 18. The DMK and some other parties have decided to boycott the elections.