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Rise and fall of party’s prominent woman face
CHENNAI: Rajya Sabha MP and former member of the AIADMK Sasikala Pushpa’s career has seen a sudden downfall after she slapped a rival DMK MP at the Delhi airport
CHENNAI: Rajya Sabha MP and former member of the AIADMK Sasikala Pushpa’s career has seen a sudden downfall after she slapped a rival DMK MP at the Delhi airport on Saturday.
The incumbent mayor of Thoothukudi, Pushpa was expelled from the party on Monday by TN chief minister Jayalalithaa for bringing “ill fame” to the AIADMK.
In an extraordinary display, the MP alleged that the chief minister had slapped her, and that her “life was under threat”.
Pushpa is one of the few prominent women leaders in the party, and was reportedly in Jayalalithaa’s inner circle.
A post-graduate with degrees in Public Administration and English Literature, Pushpa began her political career as a party worker, before climbing up the ranks to become a ward councillor in Thoothukudi, and finally mayor of the municipality in 2011.
She was nominated by Jayalalithaa in 2014 to be a Rajya Sabha MP.
This is not the first time that the two have been at loggerheads: Jayalalithaa had removed Pushpa from the prestigious position of president of the women’s wing, as well as forced to step down from her post as deputy leader of the AIADMK’s Rajya Sabha MPs during the party’s all state meet in January, ahead of the 2016 elections.
What made the sudden demotion all the more interesting was the marked silence surrounding it, with AIADMK leaders refusing to comment on Pushpa’s sudden fall from grace.
A similar silence is currently present, with senior party leaders refusing to comment. DMK leader MK Stalin said on Monday that Jayalalithaa “had to respond to Sasikala’s accusations.”
The former AIADMK member’s husband, Thilangan, also disavowed any knowledge of the incident, and brusquely told the press that his wife was “doing politics.”
