AIADMK workers vows to secure all Lok Sabha seats

CHENNAI: With AIADMKsupremo J Jayalalithaa eyeing for a bigger role in national politics, Tamil Nadu ministers and AIADMK workers today vowed to secure all the 40 LokSabha seats in its next polls.

"We take a pledge to secure all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to give the power to the party chief to decide the future of India", they said after paying homage to AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR, on his 25th death anniversary.

Finance Minister O Panneerselvam, considered a close confidante of Jayalalithaa, read out the pledge at the MGR memorial in Marina which was recently renovated.

Jayalalithaa and her ministerial and party colleagues paid floral tributes to the late leader.

With the DMK launching an attack on the Jayalalithaa government on the power crisis, the AIADMK workers said they would go before the people on the "inefficiency" of the previous DMK regime which had resulted in the severe shortage of power and the efforts taken by Jayalalithaa to tide over the crisis.

The 18-point pledge also elaborated on the measures taken by the AIADMK regime since coming to power in May last year and the problems faced by it, on account of Cauvery water crisis, Mullaperiyar Dam row among others.