Jayalalithaa returns to Chennai: Likely to attend Budget Meet

All India Anna DMK Supremo and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Ms J Jayalalitha on Thursday after noon returned to Chennai from Kodanadu.

She went to Kodanadu on February 27 to skip the March 13 opening of the new legislative Assembly-secretariat complex here.

The day Ms Jayalalithaa left for Kodanadu, she received an invite from state public department secretary Jothi Jegarajan for the March 13 inaugural function on Anna Salai. Jothi Jegarajan handed over the invitation to her personal assistant at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai.

AIADMK legislators, including their supremo, boycotted the function in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opened the new Assembly building and the Secretariat.

AIADMK sources pointed out that their party leader gave the function a miss to avoid any snubbing by chief minister M. Karunanidhi.

Mr Karunanidhi, while speaking at the function, referred to Ms Jayalalithaa’s meeting with UPA chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, in Delhi on January 25 and said such journeys “to create enmity between the DMK and the Congress” were not fruitful. Ms Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister heaped praise on Mr Karunanidhi for making Tamil Nadu a model state in development.

According to the AIADMK sources , Ms Jayalalithaa likely to attend the assembly secession on Friday, in which state finance minister Mr K Anbazhagan present the Budget for the year 2010-1011.

Special court adjourns wealth case

Meanwhile, the Special Court in Karnataka trying the disproportionate assets case against Ms Jayalalith and her close associate Ms Sasikala on Thursday adjourned the case to March 22.

Special Court judge B. M. Mallikarjunaiah adjourned it to March 22, in view of the memo filed by Special Public Prosecutor B. V. Acharya stating the Special Leave Petition filed by Ms. Jayalalithaa in the case is coming up before the Supreme Court on Friday.

When the case came up for hearing on March 3, Justice Mallikarjunaiah had ordered 42 prosecution witnesses to be summoned for cross examination between March 18-26. The order was passed on a memo filed by Mr. Acharya for recalling 45 witnesses.

- Asian Tribune -