Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on May 5 said she boycotted Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's function to dedicate to the nation the new international departure terminal of Chennai airport on May 4, as "due respect" was not shown to her.

Replying to All India Forward Block (AIFB) member L Santhanam, who raised the issue in the state Assembly, Jayalalithaa said even in seating arrangements in the dais, she was allotted a seat "in a corner" while Union Environment Minister T R Baalu, who was in no way connected with the function, was seated next to the Prime Minister.

Conventions that a Chief Minister should be seated next to the Prime Minister were given the go-by at the function. "Due respect should be given to the Chief Minister's post. I do not want any respect to be shown to me as Jayalalithaa, but as state Chief Minister, I should have been given a seat next to the Prime Minister," she said.

She alleged the Airports Authority of India, which had promised to name the new terminal after All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) founder, late M G Ramachandran, had gone back on its word.

She said she got a fax message from the Prime Minister's office on May 3, which had clearly stated that she should "sit in a corner".

All these things had been done by Union Environment Minister T R Baalu, who had a lot of "clout" with the Prime Minister, she charged, adding it would have been better if the minister had used his influence for getting more drought relief funds and rice to the state, besides Cauvery water.

PTI