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Jaya tells Cong, TMC to finalise
poll strategy by week-end: PTI

"I am not setting any cut-off date. It will be convenient if they decide before the week-end," Jayalalitha told a press conference.

She said that during the 1996 polls, the Congress-Tiwari, of which Congress Working Committee member Arjun Singh and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President E V K S Elangovan were a part, had allied with the PMK.

In the by-elections to the Palani Lok Sabha seat in 1993 and the Pudukottai assembly by-election in 1997, the Congress had taken PMK support, she added.

She said after the PMK's admission into the front, the Congress leaders had not contacted her.

Jayalalitha said the TMC was part and parcel of the secular front, but had to make up its mind soon on joining the AIADMK electoral front.

On DMK President M Karunanidhi's open invitation to the TMC to join the DMK front, she said, "It only showed that Karunanidhi is desperate. It also indicates that he is being isolated."

Jayalalitha denied that she had conceded the PMK's claim for chief ministership of the Union territory of Pondicherry if the front was voted to power. ''In fact, we have not discussed Pondicherry during our talks,'' she said.

On why she did not consult other parties before admitting the PMK into the front, Jayalalitha said she was taken by surprise by the PMK's decision to quit the National Democratic Alliance and join the AIADMK front.

When Ramdoss decided to call on her on February 6 to firm up the PMK's alliance with the AIADMK, she did not get time to consult other parties in the front as Ramdoss's decision to call on her was conveyed to her only late at night on February 5, she said.

She said the AIADMK would never compromise on its 'anti-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam' stand.

On how her party could align with the PMK, which was known for its pro-LTTE stand, she said it was only fighting for the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils. ''It is demanding only a separate Tamil Eelam (homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils) and not a separate Tamil Nadu.''

Jayalalitha said her party was yet to begin seat-sharing talks with its allies. Only after firming up the alliance, she would be able to declare the number of seats each party would contest.

Jayalalitha said she did not know why some people were opposed to the PMK's induction.

She said that when the AIADMK aligned with the PMK during the 1998 Lok Sabha polls and the PMK joined the DMK front in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, nobody raised objections. ''Why now,'' she asked.

On whether a third front would be formed in the state, she said the possibility was 'very remote'.

Jayalalitha said the fate of recently formed caste-based political parties in Tamil Nadu would be sealed in the polls. She said her front's main plank of electioneering would be the DMK government's failure on all fronts, including its failure to fulfil its promises to farmers, weavers and the reopening of industrial units.

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