File photo of AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Lashing out at Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today alleged he had done nothing either for his Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency or for the state.
"Not only me, the entire Tamil Nadu knows he has not done anything for the state," Jayalalithaa told an election meeting in Madurai.
The Centre had given concessions to entrepreneurs who started industries in some states,the same could have been extended to the state. "But he did not do it. He did not wish to do good things for Tamil Nadu," she said.
"On the other hand, under the guise of re-estimate of original budget/plan allocations, Chidambaram reduced the amounts originally sanctioned to Tamil Nadu during the budget/plan presentation," she charged.
"Can Mr Chidambaram deny that Tamil Nadu was not given the sanctioned amount of Rs 901.70 crore under various educational department schemes? Can he deny that the Centre did not allocate Rs 931 crore earmarked for road maintenance in Tamil Nadu?" she asked.
Referring to the Finance Minister's reported charge against her that there was no chance for those who were flying to know about what was happening on the ground, Jayalalithaa said that from 1982, she had been travelling the length and breadth of the country.
During 1984, Chidambaram himself had travelled with her in an open jeep. "I have sought vote for him. There is no place in Tamil Nadu where my feet have not touched," she said.
Jayalalithaa said she was travelling by air to avoid hardship to policemen. Besides Chidambaram, as Home Minister, had written to her about the security threat to her in March 2009, she said, adding he should read that letter.
Jayalalithaa was campaigning for her party candidate Gopalakrishnan in Madurai.
The Chief Minister recalled her strident criticism of Chidambaram in his home turf Sivaganga constituency recently and said she had questioned his track record as Finance Minister, saying he had left the economy in a shambles.
"Unable to digest the fact highlighted by me, Chidambaram has said that I was not speaking the truth. Instead of listing out his achievements to Tamil Nadu, he said I am not speaking the truth and is this fair," she said.
"I ask Chidambaram once again. Isn't there a key role for him in the Indian economy being reduced to a shambles," she said.
After her taunt at Sivaganga, Chidambaram had said Jayalalithaa was making "sweeping charges" against him, describing them as "ignorance".
Lambasting Congress, she questioned the war preparedness of the Indian armed forces, saying there were reports that they had ammunition only for 20 days against the routine of 40 days.
"The Congress government has pushed the military to a pathetic situation of unable to face the enemy's attack," she said while calling for defeat of the UPA.