Soon after the SC blow to her political ambitions, 62-year-old VK Sasikala, the interim general secretary of the AIADMK, on Tuesday selected her loyalist Edappadi Palanisamy (62), Minister for Public Works in the Panneerselvam Cabinet, to head the AIADMK and also nominated him as CM candidate. Palanisamy is the third person to be elected as leader of the AIADMK legislature party in the last three months.
Before stepping down as party chief, Sasikala expelled Chief Minister Panneerselvam, Education Minister K Pandiarajan and 20 other office bearers of the party from the primary membership of the AIADMK. But the 12 MPs and nine MlAs who have expressed their solidarity with Panneerselvam have been left untouched. The move is seen as a ploy to prevent more MlAs from joining the rebel camp.
Sasikala, who stayed with the AIADMK MlAs at the Golden Bay Beach Resort that is 90 km away from Chennai on Monday, had made grand plans to return to Chennai on Tuesday morning accompanied by a cavalcade of cars and buses. But Chinnamma who describes herself as a “lioness,” was deeply upset by the SC verdict and broke down.
“Her nephews had told her that she would come out clean in the DA case,” said a senior AIADMK leader.
Palanisamy, accompanied by a team of Ministers and MlAs, totalling 12, called on Governor Vidyasagar Rao to stake his claim to form a Government. He also submitted the letters of support from 123 MlAs.
Soon after Rajya Sabha member V Mythreyan and K Pandiarajan, Minister for Education representing the Panneerselvam camp, called on the Governor. Details of both the meetings were not known even at the time of going to Press.
Efforts are also on by the AIADMK leadership to get a reprieve for Sasikala from surrendering to the Special Court in Bengaluru as per the court order. The plan is to argue before the SC that Sasikala is critically ill and requires medical assistance.
Reacting to the verdict, the DMK, the principal Opposition party which has 89 members and commands the support of nine more MlAs, said it was watching the developments. “We are not for Panneerselvam or any other AIADMK leader. The DMK welcomes this verdict as we feel this would act as a deterrent for political leaders,” said DMK working president MK Stalin.
Deepa Peravai, a forum floated by supporters of Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar, burst crackers and distributed sweets after Sasikala’s conviction. “The conviction is a divine verdict and SasikalaRs s designs to dismantle democracy was smashed to pieces by the Supreme Court’s verdict, convener of the
Peravai’s Puducherry unit, PM Bhaskar said. Deepa announced that she was joining the Panneerselvam camp.
Meanwhile, S Semmalai, senior AIADMK MlA who was a Minister in the previous Government led by Jayalalithaa, told The Pioneer that the MlAs were kept at the Golden Bay Beach Resort against their wishes by Sasikala’s family.
“I was with the MlAs at the resort for the last five days. More than 50 per cent of the MlAs will jump fence and join Panneerselvam if Sasikala is removed from the retreat. Though I tried to reason with
Sasikala to maintain the unity of the party, she or her family members were not in a mood to listen,” said Semmalai, who was the pro-term Speaker of the present Tamil Nadu Assembly.
He also said that Palanisamy would not be able to hold the party together for long as most of the MlAs would jump fence at the first opportunity. “Palanisamy may be an organiser but he is thoroughly incapable. He should understand that he would not be able to hold together the party,” said Semmalai.
Another senior AIADMK leader said Palanisamy’s background as a politician is filled with dubious incidents and charges of corruption. “The common man and woman in Tamil Nadu were against Sasikala becoming the Chief Minister. Now that she is out of politics for ten years, we are least bothered about who the CM is,” said N Kalyanasundaram, TN’s political chronicler.
However, KA Johny, political columnist and commentator is of the view that TN could be in for President’s Rule or mid-term election.