Will finalise electoral strategy at appropriate time: Jayalalithaa

In the 2014 LS polls, the party faced the elections by itself sans an alliance & has 'emerged as the 3rd largest party' with 37 MPs

With all eyes on ruling AIADMK's electoral strategy for 2016 Assembly polls, party General Secretary and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today said she will finalise it at the appropriate time, factoring in the prevailing situation.

There is no set or specific strategy to face the hustings, Jayalalithaa said in her address at the meeting of the party's Executive and General Council, its key decision-making bodies, here.

"There is no specific strategy to face polls. For instance, we aligned with some parties for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and some parties for the 2011 Assembly polls," she said in an apparent reference to joining hands with the Left and also DMDK later.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the party faced the elections by itself sans an alliance and has "emerged as the third largest party" in the Lok Sabha with 37 MPs, after the ruling BJP (282) and Opposition Congress (then 44), she said.

"Like that, I will take the right decision (at the appropriate time) according to the (prevailing) situation for the 2016 Assembly elections," she said even as the party earlier authorised her to take all election-related decisions.

The Chief Minister, citing her pro-people welfare measures, however, expressed confidence that the party will capture power for the seventh time riding on performance and that AIADMK's "victory is a foregone" conclusion.

Because of her social welfare initiatives, the state was forging ahead in health and education indicators, she said.

She also cited the Rs 2.4 lakh crore investment commitment made at the Global Investors' Meet held in September.

Taking on arch rival DMK, she said the party had lost the plot and therefore would "unleash a bag of lies to hoodwink" people, and asked her partymen to be vigilant about this and counter them with facts and also explain to people her government's welfare measures.

Slamming DMK chief M Karunanidhi and his son M K Stalin, she said the party-led government had earlier 'betrayed' Tamils and cited power-cuts, the approval given for methane mining in Cauvery river bed, and the Sri Lankan Tamils issue to buttress her claim.

"People will not forgive them," she said, adding her government had an "impeccable record.