J Jayalalithaa, the general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), is all set to become the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Her party stormed back to power after a gap of seven years, with her alliance winning 197 out of 234 seats in the state assembly. The AIADMK routed the front led by its main rival, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), both in rural land urban constituencies, limiting its tally to just 33.

Speaking to the media, Jayalalithaa said, ?It is a victory not just for us, it is the victory for the democracy as well as people for Tamil Nadu. The people were waiting for a chance to vent their anger against the corrupt DMK government.? Once they got the opportunity, they kicked out the DMK, she said.

DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi submitted the resignation of his ministry to governor SS Barnala. The governor accepted the resignation of Karunanidhi and his council of ministers, a Raj Bhavan communique said. The governor has requested Karunanidhi and the present council of ministers to function until alternative arrangements were made, it said.

Thanking the people of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa said that her first priority was to rebuild the state, adding that it was not an easy task. ?When I took up the chief ministership in 1991 and 2001, the DMK regime ruled just prior that and had ruined the state?s economy,? she said, adding that many world bodies like the World Bank had written the state off. ?This time also the economic situation is worse, may be 10,000 times worse than what it was in the previous occasion,? she said.

She said she would also focus on fulfilling the promises in the party?s election manifesto within one and a half years. The date of the swearing-in ceremony would be decided once she gets the invitation from the governor to form the government.

Jayalalithaa, known for taking hard and tough decisions either in government or in party affairs, has come back to power after suffering successive defeats in elections since 2004. This time around, in a departure from from her usual self of rigid attitude, she cobbled together a formidable alliance with actor-turned-politician Vijayakanth?s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMDK) and the Left parties. This was to prevent a repeat of the last election, when the anti-DMK vote got split between the various opposition parties.

The strategy seems to have worked, and she will now become the chief minister of the state for the third time. Moreover, her party is comfortably past the halfway mark, and is likely to form the government on its own.

?The AIADMK has no intention of sharing power with allies and would go after the DMK?s first family on the issue of corruption,? said M Thambidurai, the AIADMK?s leader in the Lok Sabha.

A leading actress of yesteryear, Jayalalithaa had taken the lead in forging alliances and announcing party candidates when the DMK-led front was still grappling with seat-sharing talks with its ally, the Congress. However, the her plan of launching a campaign early ran into a rough weather after her allies threatened to pull out of the combine due to differences over constituencies allotted to them. Later, she hit the road from Srirangam, her ancestral town, from where she won.

This time around, she also joined the populist bandwagon and had announced a slew of freebies, which neutralised the DMK?s calculation of winning people?s hearts through sops. And in a marked divergence from her usual style of campaigning, the usually stand-offish politician this time came out of her campaign vehicle and mingled with the crowds. And it clearly, it has paid off.