To mark the 55th birthday of Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa, the party organised a week-long programme during which sewing machines and other materials would be distributed to help the poor, women and weaker sections.
The programme began on February 24, the birthday of Jayalalithaa, and will continue till March 2.
The AIADMK appealed to party functionaries to organise such programmes and distribute, among other things, sewing machines for poor and destitute women, tricycles for physically handicapped, iron boxes for dhobis, hearing aids to the hearing impaired, black glasses and walking sticks to the visually handicapped, educational material and uniforms to school students and dhotis and saris to the aged.
The party also asked the cadres to organise eye and blood donation camps and distribute food to inmates of old age homes, general hospitals and mental hospitals.

With hopes to chalk out an effective strategy to counter the BJP and the Sangh Pariwar’s efforts to push the entire nation into the conflagration of Hindutva, opposition stalwarts recently attended the dinner hosted by Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence. Heavyweights like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Pawar attended the party which was also joined by former prime ministers Chandrashekhar, H. D. Devegowda, Janshakti leader Ramvilas Paswan, CPI(M) leader Somnath Chatterjee and CPI leader A. B. Bardhan. The media had begun ladling out a stream of speculative stories as soon as invitations to the party were extended.

On the other hand, people were glued to their TV sets from morning to midnight in the hope that something new and explosive would come out of the Sonia-hosted opposition leaders; gathering. However, much to the chagrin of all, the party turned out to be as ordinary as any other political meet in the city. In the four hours that the dinner went on, Ayodhya and nothing else was discussed. According to sources, the Congress leaders attending the meet were reluctant to share their opinions on other burning issues with opposition leaders. Consequently, even those who had participated with hope that a new mantra to fight the post-Modi era would be evolved, had to eat humble pie. The Janashakti leader was heard saying: "Aise party mein aane se kya fayda " (What is the benefit of attending such a party).

Once upon a time, elections used to be fought on issues and the language that the political leaders used against opponents was polished and sophisticated. Now in the 21st century, with modernity touching every aspect of life, politicians find it difficult to be well-mannered and use at least semi-cultured language against rivals. In fact, during the campaigning for the Assembly election in Himachal Pradesh, there was tough competition among politicians on the display of vulgarities. If the Congress in its campaign trumpeted that Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal of the BJP had personal assets worth above Rs. 40 crore, the BJP, in turn, accused some Congress leaders from Punjab and Delhi of involvement in a sex scandal in Gujarat. The country was shocked when an influential Congress leader accused Prime Minister Atal Behari of eating beef. Such kind of campaigning during the elections had never been seen before, said an old politician of the Lohia camp. Political watchers, on the other hand, feel that these developments are a direct fallout of mass promotions of workers who used to paste posters and spread ‘daris’, into ‘mantris.’ " People have learnt the tricks to scale from the lower to higher positions, but they have not learnt how to behave in public, or otherwise" said a senior politician. But then, one should also know that politics is not for ’bhadra’ people. Only those who have perfected the art of speaking lies, ‘chamchagiri’ and abusing others rise in politics.