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Tamil Nadu CM unveils temple for AIADMK leaders Jayalalithaa, MGR
The temple has been built on a 12-acre plot in Thirumangalam and has cost ₹50-lakh. The bronze statues weigh 400-kg each.
Tamil Nadu chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami and his deputy, O Paneerselvam, on Saturday inaugurated a temple with life-size bronze statues of ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) late stalwarts MG Ramachandran (MGR) and J Jayalalithaa in Madurai district amid a large gathering of the party workers. The two performed traditional rituals and pujas.
The temple has been built on a 12-acre plot in Thirumangalam and has cost ₹50-lakh. The bronze statues weigh 400-kg each.
Speaking after the unveiling, Palaniswami asked the workers to work towards winning the assembly elections slated for April-May.
“Among the leaders in India, it is the two of them who lived for the people and not for themselves,” Palaniswami said. “Even after their deaths, they continue to live in the hearts of people like Gods. Their schemes to uplift the poor and marginalised can never be forgotten. They didn’t have children, those gathered here are their children. And our only goal is to continue their (MGR-Jayalalithaa) governance.”
The party hopes to get a third term after winning back-to-back polls under Jayalalithaa’s leadership. She passed away in office in December 2016. MGR in 1972 formed the ADMK (later AIADMK). He was the chief minister until his death in 1987.
The unveiling comes as Jayalalithaa's aide and expelled leader V K Sasikala is set to return to Chennai following her release from prison after serving a term in a disproportionate assets case.
The Palaniswami-led AIADMK has said she will not be re-inducted into the party.
Earlier this week, the government also inaugurated an 80-crore memorial for Jayalalithaa at her burial place on the Marina beach in Chennai. A day later, they opened her residence Veda Nilayam in Chennai as a memorial and later unveiled a nine-foot statue of Jayalalithaa at the city's Lady Willingdon College.
