News Desk: J. Jayalalithaa completed her one year as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. However, to mark the occasion her government has launched a massive ad campaign as part of the celebrations.

The huge amount of money spent for this campaign has become the talk of the town. This blitz by Jayalalithaa has swallowed a considerable amount of tax-payers' money to advertise her achievements. It is reported that Tamil Nadu government had a budget of about Rs. 25 crore for the whole celebration and spent at least Rs. 15 crore on the ads.


Full length advertisement of four pages appeared in almost all national dailies and Tamil newspapers to propagate Jaya’s achievements, except in the ones that is owned by the family members of the opposition DMK.


These are four pages-advertisements showing Jayalalithaa's full-size image on the front page and her achievements as the chief minister of TN on the rest three pages.


The ads tells about  keeping of Amma’s election promises, including the distribution of free rice, mixer-grinders, gold for mangal-sutras, cows and goats. As per AIADMK, it is time to celebrate as Ms Jayalalithaa has successfully kept all her election promises in spite of the step-motherly treatment of the Centre to non-Congress ruled States.


However, some people see this celebration as a strategic promotion of Brand Jayalalithaa at the national level at a time when some non-Congress ruled states with regional parties like the Biju Janata Dal of Odisha are on the verge of making a national opposition against the congress powered at the centre.


DMK MP Kanimozhi, who is the daughter of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi, commented on the massive expenditure on ads saying "It's alright to bring out advertisements if you have achieved something...don't know what the CM (Jayalalithaa) has achieved in a year."


CPI leader Gurudas Gupta also criticised the ads. He said, "It's a massive wastage of public money. It's over publicity when CMs get publicity anyways...not just Jayalalithaa, Modi and Mamata have also done so".

 

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