Chennai: Jayalalithaa's letter on support to the Congress in 1999 took a new turn with her assertion on August 31 that she had only said that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) would 'extend support to a government to be formed by the Congress led by Sonia Gandhi' and never said that her party would extend support to a government 'to be formed by Sonia Gandhi'.

Hitting out at the Congress for releasing a copy of her letter to the then President, she said, in a statement, that 'this is a totally misleading and malicious statement' and that her stand that her party would not support the candidature of a 'foreigner' to be the Prime Minister of this great nation stood 'vindicated'.

"Any thinking individual will well understand that what is meant here in unambiguous terms is that the AIADMK would extend support to a government to be formed by the Congress-I at the Centre," she said.

Expressing confidence that the people of the country would not be "carried away by such spiteful and naive attempts to denigrate my image and use this as a ploy to capture power", Jayalalithaa said that would stand by her statement that 'it is a crying shame' and an indicator of 'moral bankruptcy' on the part of the Congress that it was projecting Sonia Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate.

"Surely, this great nation of ours deserves better than the likes of Sonia Gandhi to lead it as Prime Minister," she said in the two-page statement.

PTI