The Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar was taking a dig at DMK president M.K. Stalin

Senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar on Tuesday took a dig at DMK president M K Stalin mocking his aspiration to become Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

“Whoever wants to become the CM can go to Ecuador and buy an island to declare themselves the CM, just like Nithyananda [a godman wanted by investigating sleuths]. We don’t have any objection,” he quipped in a lighter vein.

At an interaction with journalists in Chennai, he took on Mr. Stalin for hailing as “historic”, the Supreme Court’s verdict on holding civic polls in rural local bodies in 27 districts and later approaching the Supreme Court challenging the poll notification issued by the State Election Commission.

He also claimed that the DMK head office Arivalayam has become an unwanted place, as the party organised its district secretaries meeting in a private hotel recently. The meeting, he said, resolved to welcome local body polls at the same time the party went to the court challenging it.

“It is unfortunate that the DMK has come to this [state of affairs]. And Mr. Stalin is nurturing ambitions to become the CM,” he said.

To another query on RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy’s reported statement that the culture in the State deteriorated only during the rule of both the Dravidian parties, Mr. Jayakumar said his comments cannot be taken seriously. “He does not know politics. He is only a chartered accountant. He is criticising the AIADMK only to make himself famous. Where is imayamalai [the Himalayas] and where is parangimalai [St. Thomas Mount],” the Minister remarked.