Sasikala ready to disrupt political equations, says party 'must work in unity'

Sasikala left Bengaluru on Monday morning and received a rousing reception along the road route before she reached Chennai.

In further trouble for the already jittery AIADMK-led Tamil Nadu government, their former interim general secretary and close aide of late supremo J Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikala, whom they had expelled while she was in prison, returned to Chennai with fanfare ready for a political battle.

A large banner of VK Sasikala at Krishna Priya's residence where she likely to stay after reaching Chennai. (ANI)

Sasikala announced on Monday that she will be part of the state politics. Referring to the DMK, she urged the party to work together to defeat their common rival while she read from her notes from inside her car at Tamil Nadu’s Vaniyambadi town.

“My intention is that everyone must work in unity and not let the common enemy capture the throne,” she told reporters and hundreds of cadre. “The party has faced several struggles and risen like a phoenix in the past,” she said referring to the work of ADMK (later renamed AIADMK) founder MG Ramachandran and his successor Jayalalithaa.

Sasikala left Bengaluru on Monday morning and received a rousing reception along the road route before she reached Chennai. Sasikala made several pit stops to greet thousands of her supporters and cadre of the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) - a breakaway faction formed by her nephew TTV Dhinakaran. Though the AIADMK ran a series of actions to deviate attention from Sasikala, there was music, pomp, banners up in the sky carried by drones and a crane to garland her car.

With symbolism fully on display, Sasikala returned a free woman signalling that she is ready to disrupt the electoral equations in a state headed to polls in April-May. Sasikala isn’t a political novice, though she has never contested or campaigned and the Representation of People’s Act 1951 bars her from contesting or holding any constitutional post for the next six years. In her three-decade-long association with Jayalalithaa, Sasikala cultivated her own constituency within the AIADMK, particularly among the Thevar community which remains AIADMK’s loyal vote bank.

She quoted a song from MGR’s 1977 Tamil film to say that she is enslaved by people’s affection but will not yield to oppression. Clad in a green saree, a colour Jayalalithaa often wore, Sasikala sat inside her car bearing an AIADMK flag undeterred by police complaints against her using the flag.

Sasikala switched two cars during her journey - one reportedly belonging to an AIADMK functionary. Responding to a question by reporters on this, AIADMK spokesperson and minister D Jayakumar said, “There will be a few betrayers, it is negligible. It will not affect the party.” The AIADMK has announced several times that it won’t take Sasikala back nor will they merge with the AMMK.

Sasikala briefly held the reins of the AIADMK, between Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016 and her imprisonment in the disproportionate assets case in February 2017. Her former loyalists - chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami and his deputy O Paneerselvam, who turned against her at different points and merged their factions - will be most affected with her plans.

Since her release, Dhinakaran has insisted that Sasikala remains the general secretary and her supporters will help her reclaim the AIADMK. Dhinakaran who is an independent MLA led the AMMK in the 2019 parliamentary polls with a 4 per cent vote share.

Political analysts say that the AIADMK leadership should have waited for Sasikala to make the first move before exposing their paranoia. “The AIADMK has overreacted,” said political commentator Sriram Seshadri. “They should have let Sasikala pitch for herself first. Or they could have said that she is welcome to work like any other cadre for the party. That would have put her in a spot and public perception of Palaniswami would have elevated. But now, their fear has been exposed. We assessed that she will wait and act after the elections but with AIADMK’s pre-emptive complaints and closure of memorials, it seems like a show of who is one up. Sasikala has played it well by travelling in an AIADMK member’s car. And a divided AIADMK will ultimately benefit the DMK.” AIADMK’s ally BJP is also watching the developments from a distance. “The AIADMK and the AMMK are at each other's throats, creating unnecessary confusion,” a BJP leader said.

Sasikala completed her four-year prison term in Bengaluru on January 27 but remained in the city’s Victoria hospital for Covid-19 treatment. Since last Thursday, AIADMK ministers have filed two complaints with the DGP office against Sasikala using the party flag and of her supposed ploy to disrupt law and order.

On Sunday night, the government took ownership of six properties belonging to J Ilavarasi and VN Sudhakaran, Sasikala's relatives and co-accused in the case, as per the Supreme Court’s judgement from 2017. To prevent Sasikala from entering key locations there is a tight security at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai. Jayalalithaa’s ‘Veda Nilayam’ residence, which the government converted into a memorial is also under strict watch while her burial place on the Marina beach is closed to the public. “They are scared... people know the reasons why this was done,” said Sasikala.