Jayalalithaa ends whirlwind campaining; says she is better than Narendra Modi

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa today wound up her gruelling 51-day campaign across 40 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during which she exhorted the people to vote for her party in April 24 polls and make it part of the next government to protect their interests.

Ending her campaign in the city on the eve of deadline for electioneering, she signed off in style by claiming, "The lady in Tamil Nadu is better than Modi in Gujarat in governance."

Reeling out data on various parameters to buttress her stand that Tamil Nadu was ahead of Gujarat, she asked the electorate who was the better administrator, "Gujarat's Modiyaa or Tamil Nadu's intha ladyaa (Gujarat's Modi or this lady)?" to a thunderous applause and asserted it was she who gave the best governance.

The AIADMK supremo also attacked the DMK and Congress on various issues, especially corruption.

Jayalalithaa, who has been steadfastly pursuing her national ambitions, has visited all the 39 constituencies in the state and the lone seat in neighbouring Puducherry since March 3 appealing the voters to prefer only AIADMK nominees.

Though her party's alliance with the Left parties collapsed just few days into campaigning, Jayalalithaa went ahead and announced candidates for all constituencies and launched her campaign even before other parties could even finalise their alliances.

Along her trail, Jayalalithaa made fresh allegations against DMK leaders M Karunanidhi, M K Stalin, T R Baalu, among others, who she claimed had corruption charges against them.

Jayalalithaa, who rapped the Congress-led UPA and its erstwhile ally DMK during her initial part of campaigning since March 3, turned critical against Modi-led BJP government in Gujarat during the later part, attempting to counter predictions that she was soft on the saffron party and would join hands with it post Lok Sabha polls.