The rice is still cooking and it is now time for a gold rush in Tamil Nadu. Amma is raining largesse.
AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa on Monday lived up to her title of “Thanga Tharagai (Golden Star)” by promising four gms of gold to every poor girl at the time of her marriage.
Addressing an election rally at Guidyatham in Vellore district on Monday, Jayalalithaa sprung the latest freebie saying if elected to power her new government would give 4 gms of gold for the bride’s mangalsutra free of cost. It is meant for women below poverty line.
Coming a day after Akshaya Thrithi, when most Tamils were busy buying gold, Jayalalithaa hopes that the latest promise would neutralise DMK’s sop platter. For those, who wanted to know why she never made this promise in her party’s election manifesto, the CM had a ready reply, “The free cycle and free textbooks for schoolchildren did not find a place in our 2001 manifesto. Yet I implemented them which proves that I deliver not only what I promise, but also what I’ve not promised,” she says.
Jayalalithaa is trying to catch up with the DMK on election promises. To the party’s rice at Rs 2 per kilo, she lobbed 10 kilos of free rice. Then midway through her campaign, she also promised to waive co-operative loans to farmers, something the DMK had already said in its manifesto. And now comes the gold bounty in response to the Rs 15,000 nuptial aid for poor girls promised by the DMK.
{{/usCountry}}Jayalalithaa is trying to catch up with the DMK on election promises. To the party’s rice at Rs 2 per kilo, she lobbed 10 kilos of free rice. Then midway through her campaign, she also promised to waive co-operative loans to farmers, something the DMK had already said in its manifesto. And now comes the gold bounty in response to the Rs 15,000 nuptial aid for poor girls promised by the DMK.
{{/usCountry}}AIADMK insiders say she is likely to come with another announcement to counter the DMK’s free colour TV scheme before the campaign ends on Saturday. The pro-AIADMK Jaya TV is also running a campaign that Karaunanidhi has no intention of implementing any of the sops that he promised. He had told HT that though the promises were made to capture power, his government would aim at long-term development. Jaya TV beams only the first part of the statement.