Ailing Jaya allocating portfolios surprising

​Chennai: DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Wednesday termed as “surprising” Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao’s remarks stating that the allocation of portfolios held by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to Finance Minister O Panneerselvam was done “as per her advice”.

“This is because a question has arisen among some people if Jayalalithaa had (actually) signed the file and rendered advice (regarding) allotting her portfolios to Finance Minister Panneerselvam,” Karunanidhi said in a statement here.

“The Governor’s communiqué on Tuesday that this (portfolios’ allocation) has been done on the advice of Chief Minister is surprising,” he said. Karunanidhi’s views come a day after his party treasurer and son M K Stalin welcomed the allocation of portfolios held by Jayalalithaa to her trusted aide.

Karunanidhi claimed that when a slew of leaders, including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Stalin, visited the hospital “they were not given the opportunity to directly see her and enquire about her health”.

There was no official statement from the government though she has been hospitalised for the past 19 days and it has also been said that she may have to stay in the hospital for a longer period, he said.

Karunanidhi said the announcement that Panneerselvam will take care of Jayalalithaa’s portfolios can be “accepted” as an arrangement for “administrative convenience”.

The “suspicion whether the Governor had fully considered all the dimensions of the Constitution…before giving his nod for the new arrangement cannot be fully ignored,” he added.

He recalled his earlier view that “till such time Chief Minister Jayalalithaa resumes her duties, our plea is that an appropriate, legal arrangement should be made to fulfil the essential needs of the Tamil Nadu people”.
DMK poser to AIADMK

The AIADMK hit out at DMK treasurer M K Stalin for demanding an interim Chief Minister in view of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's hospitalisation and asked if such an arrangement was made when Karunanidhi was in hospital in 2009 for a spine surgery.

Referring to leaders, including MDMK chief Vaiko, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Su Thirunavukkarasar, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, and CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan not favouring an idea of an interim Chief Minister, the AIADMK said only Stalin had sought such an arrangement.

AIADMK mouthpiece Dr Namadhu MGR asked if the DMK-led government had "appointed an interim Chief Minister when Karunanidhi was hospitalised for a spine surgery in 2009."

Jaitley, Shah visit hospital
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and BJP President Amit Shah visited Apollo Hospital where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is admitted. The two leaders, who were received by a host of their party colleagues and officials from Tamil Nadu at the airport, were in the hospital for about 30 minutes, sources said.

After enquiring about the treatment given to 68-year-old Jayalalithaa, the two left the premises. "Visited Apollo hospital Chennai today. I wish J Jayalalithaa Ji, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu a speedy recovery", Jaitley posted on Twitter.

Shah on the microblogging site said, "Visited Apollo Hospital in Chennai to enquire about the health of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa Ji. I wish and pray for her speedy recovery".