Kanyakumari: Cementing the new alliance with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today (Feb 2, 2004) shared a public platform with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for the first time in five years and lauded her effusively, saying Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) valued friendship with her.

A day after Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani had a dinner meeting with Jayalalithaa in Chennai to fine tune the BJP-AIADMK tie-up, Vajpayee and the Chief Minister made a joint appearance at the 'bhoomipujam' of four-laning of Kanyakumari-Kashmir highway project in Kanyakumari in what turned out to be virtual launch of National Democratic Alliance's (NDA's) election campaign in the South.

On a day when political rivals Congress and DMK clinched their seat-adjustment accord in Tamil Nadu, Vajpayee said, "We value our partnership with Jayalalithaa. Under her leadership, Tamil Nadu has made massive strides in socio-economic development."

The Prime Minister said he was happy that Jayalalithaa readily agreed to join this special occasion. She has "worked hard for the development of Tamil Nadu", he added.

He commended Jayalalithaa Government for its cooperation in implementing the highway project.

She, in her turn, thanked Vajpayee for coming over to lay the foundation of the project and urged him to take measures for development of 1,900 kms of National Highway in the State by including it in Prime Minister's road development project.

Vajpayee said, "We are focussing not just on physical connectivity through road, rail and telecommunication. We are working for heart connectivity and we are succeeding from Kashmir to Kanyakumari."