Chennai: A day after the dual leadership in the AIADMK expelled 16 party members for speaking to their ousted former interim general secretary V K Sasikala, new audio clips emerged on Tuesday where she reveals that everyone back-stabbed her and that she would have picked O Panneerselvam as chief minister before she went to prison in 2017. She also offers an explanation for her decision to step away from politics before elections and her determination to reclaim the party now.
Sasikala’s team released nine audio clips of her telephonic conversations with party functionaries from across Tamil Nadu. In all her conversations, Sasikala is contemplative, consoles the cadre and sometimes expresses vexation without naming Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam.
Palaniswami and Panneerselvam who head the party as coordinator and coordinator and in the assembly as leader of opposition and deputy were Sasikala’s loyalists who turned against her at different points. A cadre, Sivanesan from Theni district from where Panneerselvam hails is heard telling her that if he hadn’t resigned, he could have brought her out and only the two of them can save the party now. To this Sasikala responded, “At that time, he left on his own. If not I would have seated him on the chair before leaving.”
Her statement is unexpected as at that point, Panneerselvam staged a dramatic revolt against Sasikala after he resigned as chief minister to make way for her. Palaniswami was in Sasikala’s camp and hence she picked him before leaving for Bengaluru to surrender to serve her for a four year jail term as a convict in the disproportionate assets case.
{{/usCountry}}Her statement is unexpected as at that point, Panneerselvam staged a dramatic revolt against Sasikala after he resigned as chief minister to make way for her. Palaniswami was in Sasikala’s camp and hence she picked him before leaving for Bengaluru to surrender to serve her for a four year jail term as a convict in the disproportionate assets case.
{{/usCountry}}“Everyone backstabbed me. There is no more space left on my back to be stabbed anymore,” Sasikala tells this cadre. “But how can I be a mute spectator if they do this to cadres also?”
In her conversations with other cadres, she even goes on to say that the AIADMK would have won had they been united. “I stepped aside because they said they wouldn’t take me in and they would win,” she says. “So I thought, okay, let’s leave it. Let them do it. Now the cadres are crying to me. How can I be quiet?”
She criticised the leadership expelling the cadre a day ago. “The selfishness of one or two people is driving them to expel the cadre and they’re making a scapegoat. That is wrong.”
The cadre also complained to Sasikala that the party doesn’t have semblance of its past glory but looks like a caste outfit. This is in reference to Palaniswami’s hold over the party and his nurturing of his community, the Gounders over the Mukkulathor community whom Sasikala had cultivated over the years when late J Jayalalithaa headed the party. Panneerselvam also belongs to the Mukkalathor community.
Sasikala told a cadre that after AIADMK returned to power in 2016, Jayalalithaa had shared certain plans with her about the things she wanted to do for poor people. “All that’s in my heart and I will do it,” she says. “I’m very upset about the way they are running the party...People didn’t accept them. Along with Amma I’ve worked so hard for the party. Now there is a necessity for me to save the party and cadre. The time for that has come.”
On Monday, the feuding leaders Palaniswami and Panneerselvam united together once again like they did before the elections to keep Sasikala and family away. They released a four page resolution warning party cadre from having any truck with her. Panneerselvam who has softened his stance against Sasikala’s re-entry was elected as deputy legislative leader.
Experts say that the dual leadership will continue in the AIADMK. “It is clear that EPS has the majority of supporters in the party and OPS barely has any support. But for now they have a 50% power sharing of the 33% votes,” said political commentator Raveendran Duraisamy. “Panneerselvam will not let that go and neither will want an issue with the party symbol if they split and it freezes. Sasikala has no political capital. She is now a paper tigress.”