Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa is recovering well and also reading newspapers, her party AIADMK said. “She is reading newspapers and recovering fast,” party spokesperson CR Saraswathi told NDTV on Wednesday, a statement which intended to silence uninterrupted criticism from various quarters of the opposition in the state.
The spokesperson’s comments have come in wake of continuous criticism the ruling party has been facing over Jayalalithaa’s health, who has been admitted in Apollo Hospitals since September 22.”Portfolios looked after by Honourable Amma have been allocated to Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam on the advice of Puratchi Thalaivi Amma,” said a tweet from AIADMK’s official account.
The opposition parties have been questioning as to how could the chief minister, who is on respiratory support in the hospital, allocate eight of her portfolios to O Paneerselvam. DMK president M Karunanidhi said he was surprised that Tamil Nadu governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao handed over the portfolios held by Jayalalithaa to Paneerselvam on her advice.
Karunanidhi questioned the move saying how could that be possible when the chief minister has been in hospital for the past 20 days and several leaders have not been allowed to meet her. Paneerselvam has been the ailing CM’s trusted aide, having served as the chief minister for brief stints in 2001 and 2014, when the latter had to step down after a court case and then convicting in a disappropriate assets case.
Meanwhile, the AIADMK on its Twitter account has also started a campaign on Twitter asking supporters to change their profile picture to Jayalalithaa’s photograph to ‘stop rumours’ surrounding her health. The Tamil Nadu government has also cracked down on people found spreading rumours about the 68-year-old leader, arresting such people. Earlier, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in a letter to union home minister Rajnath Singh had urged imposition of President’s Rule in the state, alleging administrative disarray and reactivation of disruptive elements like ISIS sleepers cells since Jayalalithaa was admitted in the hospital.
