Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 14 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Tuesday triggered a full blown war of words with P. Chidambaram accusing the union home minister of ballot “fraud” in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Chidambaram shot back quickly, saying the newly-elected AIADMK chief minister was in the habit of starting on the “wrong foot” and accused her of contempt of court.

“He has not won the (2009) parliamentary election. In fact, he lost the election,” Jayalalithaa told reporters here on the second day of her trip to New Delhi - the first after she won the state assembly elections last month.

Though the AIADMK leader herself said the trip was to have better relations with the central government, she chose to directly accuse the home minister - who is responsible for centre-state relations - of playing “a fraud on the nation”.

Chidambaram lashed out at her, saying Jayalalithaa’s statement was in contempt of court.

“She has made a statement questioning my election to the Lok Sabha in 2009. She knows that her candidate Raja Kannappan has filed an election petition in the Madras High Court which is pending since September 2009. Her statement is, therefore, gross contempt of court,” Chidambaram said in a statement.

Chidambaram added: “Miss Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has the habit of starting on the wrong foot. She has always had utter contempt of court proceedings and hence a statement today is not at all surprising.”

“Besides, her candidate Raja Kannappan also contested the May 2011 assembly elections and lost from one of the segments falling within my parliamentary constituency. Perhaps she would say that, that election result was also fraudulent,” the statement added.

Jayalalithaa in her remarks against the home minister said the data entry operator in the Sivaganga Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu transferred votes secured by AIADMK candidate Raja Kannappan to Chidambaram’s credit in the 2009 general elections.

“This is how this fraudulent victory was secured,” she said. “He should resign.”

The chief minister said her party candidate had filed a case in the court challenging Chidambaram’s victory. “There is no question of softening our stand. We will try to expedite the case.”

She went on to add that Chidambaram’s position in the cabinet was “untenable”.

Chidambaram’s election had of course led to a major controversy. On the morning of the result day May 15, 2009, election officials declared that he was defeated by AIADMK’s Kannappan by over 3,000 votes.

It was confirmed on a second recount. However, a third recount was done at the request of Chidambaram that revealed he was leading with a slender 3,354 vote margin with 3,34,348 votes against and 3,30,994 for Kannappan.

Kannappan later accused the home minister of bribing election officers and the AIADMK has vowed to take legal action against the officers.