Floral tributes paid to Jaya

Chennai, Feb 24 : Floral tributes were paid to former AIADMK Supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on the occasion of her 74th birth anniversary today. It was a low key affair as the birth anniversary comes a couple of days after the AIADMK was badly routed in the February 19 Urban Local body polls–the third successive setback faced by the party starting from the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the last year’s Assembly elections. Former Chief Ministers O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswmi, who are the Coordinator and Joint Coordinator of the AIADMK respectively, paid floral tributes to a decorated portrait of Ms Jayalalithaa at their residences to mark the occasion. Normally a large number of party cadres used to throng the Party office in the city on the occasion. But today it wore a deserted look in the wake of party’s rout in the local body polls. Meanwhile, unperturbed by the urban local body poll setback, Mr Panneerselvam and Mr Palaniswami urged party cadres to take a pledge ‘to save’ the party. Reminding members of the AIADMK that all had experienced electoral successes and defeats, the top AIADMK leaders, in a joint statemnet, urged them to protect the party and take a vow to complete the unfinished agenda left behind by the late Jayalalithaa in the area of public service. In a bid to boost the morale of the party cadre, they said every party tasted victory and defeat in elections. But cadres had a debt to pay back to Ms Jayalalithaa by working hard to help the party win in future elections. They said the late CM had famously stated that the AIADMK would rule for centuries even after her demise to uplift crores of people from poverty and sufferings. ‘Let us also, with a firm resolve, take a similar pledge to save the party and serve the people, complete the tasks left to us by our leader, and win the next election,’ they said. GV 1310