By IANS
Chennai : Actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth has refuted AIADMK chief J. Jayalalitha’s claim of being the true heir to the political legacy of former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran and termed her ascent as a mere “accident”.
“Jayalalitha emerging as the leader of the AIADMK is an accident,” Vijayakanth told reporters near Erode Monday.
The charismatic actor-turned-politician M.G. Ramachandran – popularly known as MGR – had broken away from DMK and formed the AIADMK in 1972.
“The former chief minister and AIADMK leader (MGR) never declared Jayalalitha as his political heir,” said Vijayakanth, who likes to be called as Karuppu (dark) MGR.
He also alleged Jayalalitha – a top actress in her younger days – “had never spent a single rupee for the poor when she was an actress”.
“But I have been involved in lot of welfare activities for the past 25 years. I give Rs.50,000 every year to the home for the dumb and deaf at MGR’s residence at Ramavaram,” said the actor, who is also an MLA and the president of his one-year old MDMK party.
“I never said I am MGR’s heir. But I am just following his footsteps like Ekalavya in Mahabharata. He took Dhronacharya as his teacher, MGR is my political guru.”
“I want to establish a clean and corruption free government like he did,”, he said.
He said the DMDK would contest on its own in the 2009 parliamentary elections and would win all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.