Thursday saw the beginning of a “Ujjwal” war in Tamil Nadu between the ruling AIADMK and the BJP which is struggling hard to make its presence felt in the election bound State.
The statement made by Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal last Friday that Tamil Nadu was functioning like a “State within a State” and he was not able to contact Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for discussions about the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), the Centre’s flagship programme to turn around the loss making distribution companies (Discom), has upset Jayalalithaa. She deputed two of her trusted aides on Tuesday and Wednesday to take on Goyal by making them issue signed statements rebutting the charges made by the Union Power Minister.
On Thursday, Amma, as she is addressed by the cadre, chose her close confidant and party spokesperson CR Saraswathi, to inform the world that the BJP was upset over its failure to forge an alliance with the AIADMK and hence the allegations and accusations. “Till the other day the BJP was praising the AIADMK and our Amma. How can they claim that Amma is not available for discussions over the last two daysIJ” asked Saraswathy while speaking to reporters here on Thursday.
The provocation for Saraswathi’s outburst came from Prakash Javadekar, the Union Minister for Forest and Environment, who is the BJP-in-charge for Tamil Nadu Assembly election. Jawadekar who landed in Chennai on Wednesday to cobble up some kind of alliance with fringe outfits in the State who had failed to get admitted in other fronts blamed the AIADMK Government for not helping the people of Tamil Nadu to avail the benefits and schemes launched by the Narendra Modi Government.
“The Union Government launched the UDAY scheme (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) to increase the efficiency, control losses and to ensure quality power is available to the people without any interruption. The scheme will ensure turnaround, improve efficiency and will control loss and ensure quality power supply to common people,” said Javadekar.
He said Tamil Nadu has not joined the scheme for reasons best known to the top leadership of the AIADMK. “Vision and mission without commission is our goal. Overall development of the State with corruption-free Government is our aim,” said Javadekar.
Saraswathy said the UDAY scheme has many inherent shortcomings and drawbacks. “Though our Amma wrote to the Prime Minister last October itself pointing out the flaws and with suggestions of modifying the scheme, he has not bothered to respond to Amma’s letter. How can the BJP blame Amma and the AIADMK. What has the centre done to the State GovernmentIJ They have not bothered to respond to Amma’s demand that Tamil Nadu should be sanctioned `8000 crore for works connected with flood relief operations,” said Saraswathy.
The war of words between the AIADMK and the Hindutwa party come at a time when the five-party Peoples Welfare Front (which is also known as the Pandava Alliance) is engaged in a vicious wordy duel with the DMK.