Tamil Nadu will soon have yet another Dravidian political party. Deepa Jayakumar, niece of late Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, declared on Tuesday that she has decided to take the plunge into politics to work to make Tamil Nadu the number one State in Asia, the unfinished dream of her aunt.
“I am in talks with friends, well-wishers and followers of my late aunt who all want me to join politics and lead them. I will make my plans known on February 24, the birth anniversary of late Jayalalithaa,” Deepa told journalists at her house in T Nagar in Chennai on Tuesday.
Earlier, accompanied by her husband Patrick and a cavalcade of swanky cars, she went to Mount Road and garlanded the statue of late MG Ramachandran, the founder leader of the AIADMK and former Chief Minister.
When asked whether she accepted the leadership of the AIADMK’s newly-appointed general secretary VK Sasikala, she said: “For me there are only two leaders, MGR and Jayalalithaa. I’ll not accept anybody else as my leader.” She said there is a general feeling among the AIADMK cadre that the party has been hijacked by Sasikala and her family members.
She said she was in touch with many activists of the AIADMK and the world would come to know about her future plans on Jayalalithaa’s birth anniversary.
The probable names being considered for the new political outfit to be launched by Deepa are All India Jayalalithaa ADMK (AIJADMK) or simply Jayalalithaa ADMK. Even as Jayalalithaa was battling for her life in Apollo Hospitals, The Pioneer had reported that the party would disintegrate once Jayalalithaa disappears from the scene. As an indicator that Deepa would float a new outfit, cadres accompanying her to the MGR Memorial at Marina Beach had carried green, black and red coloured flags.
Sources in the AIADMK told The Pioneer that former Speaker of Tamil Nadu assembly Paul Pandian and former Mayor of Chennai Saidai Doraisamy are indirectly helping Deepa to launch the new party. “Both Paul Pandian and Doraisamy are not to be seen either at the AIADMK head quarters or at Veda Nilayam since December 29 when Sasikala was anointed as general secretary of the party,” said a senior AIADMK leader.
Prakash M Swamy, a political commentator based in Chennai said he did not see Deepa rising any challenge to Sasikala. “Sasikala is being guided by Natarajan, a master crook. Deepa has to learn the game from the scratch,” said Swamy. But GC Sekhar, a keen observer of the AIADMK, sounded confident that Deepa would walk away with the party in the next two years.