A ‘battle royale’ is being fought in Tamil Nadu for the legacy of a political outfit which is observing its 50th anniversary this year. A lady who claims to be head of the AIADMK is taking on a group of local satraps but what stands out is that she does not have a party office to boast.
V K Sasikala, close aide of late J Jayalalithaa, former Chief Minister and supremo of the AIADMK till she breathed her last on 5th December 2016, issues daily media releases commenting on various issues in Tamil Nadu. What makes her statements distinct is that the media releases do not have the address or telephone number of the party office despite the fact that the AIADMK has an imposing office in the heart of Chennai city. Though the letter pad says it is issued from Sasikala’s camp office, it does not feature any telephone number or e-mail address.
No known faces from the AIADMK have emerged as her camp followers. Though there are one or two Rajya Sabha members (which include a senior lawyer) from the AIADMK who maintain secret liaison with Puratchithai Chinnamma ( as Sasikala is addressed by her acolytes and is the Tamil for Revolutionary Mother cum Young Mother), none of them have come out in the open extending support to her.
R Thampi Durai, MP, former deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha (2014 to 2019) and the AIADMK leader who had openly demanded Sasikala’s elevation as party general secretary after the demise of Jayalalithaa and later wanted the party to appoint her as chief minister has fallen silent since Chinnamma was ousted from the AIADMK in 2017 as part of the patch up between the then chief minister Edappadi Palaniswai and his deputy O Panneerselvam.
The crowd which followed her cavalcade from Bangalore to Chennai on her release from the Parappana Agrahara Central jail in 2021 on the completion of her four-year imprisonment in connection with the disproportionate asset case is now missing . “Chinnamma is engaged in rebuilding the party from the scratch and the day is not far when she would emerge the real King Maker,” said one of her aides. For the time being she spends her days issuing releases and attending family functions of those who were her loyalists.