Chennai: Signalling its pan-India expansion, members of various parties from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat on Thursday joined ruling AIADMK in the presence of party supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
A total of 201 leaders and members of parties such as Congress, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (U) from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh received AIADMK membership cards from Jayalalithaa at the party headquarters here, an AIADMK release said.
Uttar Pradesh JD(U) unit General Secretary Rakesh Kumar, NCP leader Yogendra Kumar Pandey, Samajwadi Party Muzaffarnagar District Secretary Bhopal Shaini and UPCC member Sanjay Shaini were among those who joined the AIADMK and the initiative for this was taken by party Rajya Sabha MP V Maithreyan, it said.
The development comes amid calls for a larger national role for Jayalalithaa after the Lok Sabha elections and days after she unveiled her party`s manifesto assuring to increase IT exemption limit to Rs Five lakh and implement various freebies being extended in Tamil Nadu to the entire country if it is elected to be part of the next government.
Besides its base of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, AIADMK has state units in Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
Further, as many as 300 members of DMDK, PMK and Congress in the state also joined the AIADMK, the release said.
Jayalalithaa asked the new comers to cooperate and work with her in ensuring `peace, prosperity and progress for the entire nation`, which is AIADMK`s poll plank for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
