Chennai: Lashing out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for “enacting a farce” on the Tamil Nadu fishermen issue, the AIADMK supremo and Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa charged the Congress with showing concern for the fishermen only to gain political mileage.

Wondering if Sonia Gandhi had “ever spoken a word about the fishermen issue anywhere including Parliament before,” Ms Jayalalithaa said, “Sonia Gandhi is shedding crocodile tears for fishermen during elections after doing everything against TN fishermen and in favour of the Sri Lankan government.”

Addressing election rallies while garnering votes for her party’s North Chennai candidate T.G. Venkatesh Babu here Sunday, during her second day of campaigning in the city, Ms Jayalalithaa said no other party had deceived the fishermen as the Congress had done. Joining issue with Ms Sonia, the CM said that there was not an iota of truth in Sonia’s remark in Kanyakumari, accusing her regime of not showing concern over the fishermen issue and also claiming credit for the bilateral talks between Sri Lanka and India on the subject.

The Congress claim that it had arranged talks between India and Lanka was a “fraud” the AIADMK supremo said and pointed out that it was her government, which had ensured the release of all Tamil Nadu fishermen before the commencement of talks. “Fishermen will not accept the argument that the AIADMK government had not shown concern on the issue,” she said and added that the fishermen were quite aware that only theAIADMK was their friend.