Chief minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa pulled out all stops to take a searing swipe at DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and his son, M K Stalin, narrating a story to imply that Stalin's 'Namakku Naame' tour of the state was only an attempt by the son to achieve political success on his own since his father wasn't helping him.
The story goes that a father warns his son that politics is a dangerous game and makes his point by asking his son to bring him a ladder, climb up the loft and fetch papers that contained his political know-how. On climbing up, the father loosens his grip on the ladder and the son falls down. “If you think somebody will help you, you are wrong – politics is a fickle and dangerous game,” she narrates.
“We cannot trust our own fathers, we have to stand on our own two feet and achieve success by ourselves (nammai naame),” she added, swift to clarify - “I am not talking about anyone specific here, I brought the story up to explain the dangers of entering politics. If you thought I was, then I am not responsible for it” - but the reference to the DMK father-son duo was lost on few.
She went on to lash out at the opposition for their "campaign of lies" against AIADMK and the government, alleging that their aim was to criticize as they were unable to "digest" the state's progress. “The opposition only wants power, it does not care for the welfare of the people,” she said. She motivated cadres to do “adequate work for the upcoming polls” and invoked MGR by urging partymen to “use another person's urge to crush you as the fertiliser to work harder for the party.”