'DMK win will prompt rule of goons'

Ootacamund: "We are going to sweep the election, we are going to win with a thumping majority," Jayalalitha told Gulf News as a clutch of local reporters allowed to approach the window of her bullet-proof van by security guards waited patiently.

I had asked for her assessment of how the poll campaign was going so far, and whether she was confident of victory.

The next question was a little more complicated. Why if she had delivered good governance in the last five years did she feel the need to buy her way into the electorates' heart.

At every campaign stop, she has proffered 10kgs of rice, offered to educate pupils in the higher classes, employ one member of every family in Tamil Nadu, and jack up medical compensation packages. And these are just some of the promises she's made in blatant disregard of the Election Commission guidelines on campaign promises.

Did this show she was not confident of victory?

"There is no controversy about the free rice. I offered it not as a poll campaign pledge but because I know what the people of Tamil Nadu need," she said with complete equanimity. "And they have the confidence that I will provide them with what they want. They have placed their trust in me.

"As for confidence, there's no question about our victory at all," she said in the same gentle tone. "We will win, our candidates will win with even bigger margins than the last time."

The free rice offer was in fact a counter to opposition leader M. Karunanidhi's offer of 1 kg of free rice to the people, an act of one upmanship that demonstrates the marked pettiness of the political discourse in Tamil Nadu.

Why was she competing in so many seats in Kerala, when she heads a patently Tamil party? Did she have national ambitions and not just regional?

"We have growing support in Kerala, and we are only responding to the calls from Kerala to put up candidates where there are more people who support the Anna DMK."

She ignored the latter part of the question but says politely" "I have to leave", but waits when you say that the ordinary people around these parts feel that the best thing about her tenure is the safe and secure environment, the lack of political blood-letting that marks the opposition DMK's style of politics.

Before the question has even ended she comes to life.

"My government has ended 'goonda raj' [rule of goons]. The last assembly election in 2001 when the DMK realised I was going to win, they rustled up every single lumpen element they could find, they found goondas and thugs and useless characters from every nook and cranny and unleashed them on me. To no avail. In the last five years they have been quiet. My government has ended their activities. It's a warning though. Vote for the DMK and you vote for a return to goonda raj."