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Vindicated: Sasikala after OPS clean chit
Expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala on Wednesday said that her position is vindicated a day after O Panneerselvam gave her a clean chit when he deposed before a judicial commission probing the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala on Wednesday said that her position is vindicated a day after O Panneerselvam gave her a clean chit when he deposed before a judicial commission probing the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
“What God knew until yesterday is now known to the people,” Sasikala told reporters in Chennai. “There may be a delay in the truth coming out. But the truth can never be hidden behind a veil.”
To a question on whether she felt sad that no senior AIADMK leaders had met her and the party resolved not to re-induct her, she replied in the negative. “I don’t feel sad,” Sasikala said.
She then stoked the past, saying that after the party founder M G Ramachandran died in 1987 (Check), Jayalalithaa was alone. “We were with her when she was alone. And under Amma (Jayalalithaa), we emerged victorious and formed the government. So, I have that experience,” she said, alluding that she is alone now, and the party can bounce back with her. “The wish of the cadres is always supreme in the AIADMK,” she said.
Panneerselvam continued to keep the guessing game going after he told the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission probing the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016 that he has regard and respect for Sasikala. He reiterated this when he met reporters following the deposition.
It was at Panneerselvam’s insistence that this commission was formed in 2017 after he rebelled against Sasikala in 2017, stating that there were suspicions over Jayalalithaa’s death as she controlled the access of who met the late chief minister, who was being treated at Chennai’s Apollo Hospitals for 74 days. Jayalalithaa breathed her last on December 5, 2016.
Sasikala, who came under the scanner after OPS and several other AIADMK leaders accused her of hiding the truth behind Jayalalithaa’s death, said she always believed the commission would bring out the truth that there was no foul play.
“I don’t believe that people have had doubts about Amma’s (Jayalalithaa) death. The doubts might have been raised by my political opponents who don’t like me,” she said, adding that Panneerselvam has “spoken the truth” by admitting that he still has respect for her.
Since her release from jail in January 2021, the debate over Sasikala’s re-induction into the AIADMK circled within the party, usually sparked by Panneerselvam’s softening statements about her. But the former chief minister and AIADMK’s co-ordinator Edappadi Palaniswami has repeatedly ensured that these temptations are quelled.
Given that the AIADMK, under the dual leadership, has not won a single election since Jayalalithaa’s death, a section of Sasikala loyalists believe that the party has to go back to its single leadership structure under her
