Karunanidhi uses Piyush Goel's video to target 'inaccessible' Amma

CHENNAI: A video showing Union power minister Piyush Goyal slamming Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa's inaccessibility and lack of response to queries on power situation has gone viral on social media. State BJP unit is jubilant with its social media wing gearing up to ensure it percolates to the people. Seeking leverage, DMK president M Karunanidhi sought to use the video to criticise the chief minister. An AIADMK spokeswoman, however, said that it would be enough for the chief minister to communicate to the Prime Minister on issues relating to the state and criticised the Centre for not being attentive to the state's needs.

Goyal in his reported remarks at a youth conference in Delhi on March 25 had said he was unable to meet the chief minister or the state ministers during the last 22 months of his tenure. "It (TN) is a state within a state. It is a part of the country where I can't even reach out to the chief minister. I have made several attempts to talk to their leaders without success," he had reportedly said.

Goyal said he got to speak to 'Amma' (referring to chief minister J Jayalalithaa) only once and he was told by the state's power minister Natham Viswanathan that he would convey his queries to Jayalalithaa, whereas other CMs responded to him directly. Goyal also says that AIADMK MPs don't speak up on the issue in Parliament "unless the script has been vetted by Amma."

In a bid to capitalize on the video, DMK chief M Karunanidhi has demanded an explanation. "When a Union power minister himself has said at a public forum that he had not got opportunities to discuss either with CM or with a minister on power reforms, I seek an explanation from the AIADMK government for his (Union minister's) comments," Karunanidhi said in a statement.