LD JAYA

Chennai, Mar 16(PTI) All India Anna Dravida Munetra
Kazhagam (AIADMK) chief Jayalalithaa, whose party skipped the
dinner hosted by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati,
Monday does not not appear to have any problem with the Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister's ambitions to become the prime
minister.

But she said her party like many others have not
expressed its aspirations for the top post, a decision on
which should wait till the elections are over.

She also made light of her party's absence at Mayawati's
dinner for the Front's leaders in Delhi Sunday night saying
"there was a communication gap.

"There is nothing wrong in certain parties expressing
their aspirations because someone has to aspire to be the
prime minister.

"There is nothing wrong in expressing one's desire but
as to when the future prime minister will be selected and how
this choice will take place, all that has to wait until the
polls are over," Jayalalitha told reporters at her residence
here.

She was asked about reports about the the prime
ministerial amibitions of Mayawati and Nationalist Congress
Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar.

Replying to a question whether she did not not depute
her representative to Mayawati's dinner because of ego clash,
Jayalalitha sought to make light of it saying "that is not a
big issue. There was a communication gap, that's all."

"No comments", Jayalalithaa said cryptically, when
asked whether she could be a possible prime ministerial
candidate of the Third Front.

Recalling the 2004 post-results scenario, she said only
after the poll verdict Manmohan Singh was announced as
Congress' Prime Minister. "No one even dreamed Singh as Prime
Minister," she added.

"As far as the AIADMK is concerned, our entire
concentration is to do all that we can to win the maximum,
that is all the 40 seats (39 in Tamil Nadu and one in
Puducherry)," the former Chief Minister said.

Asked whether her party was wooing the Pattali Makkal
Katachi (PMK) into their fold, Jayalalithaa evaded a reply,
saying the matter should be clarified with the PMK camp.

Speaking about the Third Front, she said it was an
alliance of parties without the BJP and the Congress, "which
the media calls the Third Front, but the parties
(constituents) call it the Alternative Front."

Responding to remarks of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi
describing the front as a "Third Eye," she said the term
referred to the closed Third Eye on the forehead of Lord
Shiva, which when opened, "reduced the wrongdoers and
others before it to ashes."

Earlier,Jayalalithaa handed over Rs 2.12 crore
collected for the Sri Lankan Tamils' welfare during her
day-long fast on March nine, to the International Committee of
the Red Cross.

A party release said demand drafts for the amount
were handed over to Francois Stamm, head of the Regional
Delegation of the ICRC. PTI SA
DEP