Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa launched her campaign for the national election today, exhorting voters to "send home the Congress government like you did the DMK."
The chief minister addressed a large rally in the district of Kancheepuram. She is the first mover in Tamil Nadu in campaign season - other parties like the DMK and BJP have yet to finalize their alliances. But her AIADMK has already announced its candidates for all 40 parliamentary seats and a partnership with the Left.
"Throw away the Congress...let's put a stop to this corrupt government," she said, calling attention to the array of financial scandals that loom over the Congress' attempt to get a third straight term in power at the Centre.
Jayalalithaa, 66, has said that her party will withdraw candidates from the constituencies that are later allocated to the Left.
Her party won nine Lok Sabha seats in the 2009 elections, when she was in the opposition in Tamil Nadu. Two years later, she won the state election, evicting her long-standing rival, the DMK, from office.
Her success was attributed largely to populist promises of free mixer-grinders and coloured televisions - she said last week that if her party is a member of the next national government, she will lobby to have these policies extended across states.