'World's most corrupt family': Jaya's attack on Karuna

In yet another attack on arch rival M Karunanidhi, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday vowed to put an end to the 'arrogance of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and uproot the party' in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"DMK's arrogance of being in power at the Centre will be put an end to by the AIADMK in the Lok Sabha polls," the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief said a day after she called DMK an "evil force."

Speaking at the 96th birth anniversary of party founder and former chief minister M G Ramachandran, Jaya said while MGR had checkmated Karunanidhi, "It is a fact that we have put an end to the world's most corrupt family."

Vowing to "uproot the evil force", Jayalalithaa alleged that Karunanidhi has betrayed Tamil Nadu's interests on issues like Cauvery water, the Mullaperiyar dam issue with Kerala and Katchatheevu (an islet ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974).

The CM said while MGR was in power, he reduced the DMK to the level of an opposition party, and after she took to power in 1991 and 2011, it could not even retain the status of the main opposition party.

Jayalalithaa, currently camping at Kodanadu in the hill district of Nilgiris, unveiled a bronze statue of MGR, as Ramachandran is popularly addressed, besides releasing a special souvenir to mark the occasion.

Heaping praise on her political mentor, she said MGR had kept DMK away from power and alleged that Karunanidhi had tried to break the party after his death.

Eyeing a bigger national role following AIADMK's massive win in the 2011 assembly polls, Jayalalithaa urged her party men to win all the 40 Lok Sabha seats (39 in the state and one in Puducherry) in the next elections.

With his charismatic on-screen persona and larger-than-life image, MGR founded AIADMK in 1972 after his expulsion from the DMK, making it a formidable rival to the then ruling party. His party stormed to power in 1977.

A two-time chief minister who remained in office till his death in 1987, MGR was instrumental in launching Jayalalithaa into active politics.