Sasikala’s Poser To Ruling AIADMK Causes Disarray

By S. Sethuraman

The return of Ms. Sasikala, the confidante of late supreme leader Ms. Jayalalithaa and former interim general secretary of AIADMK to Chennai from Bengaluru on Monday was an eventful 17-hour journey. But amid all the rousing welcome and crowd celebrations at several centres, she also delivered a strong political message stirring the ruling party’s electoral plans.

Sasikala said she would be in “active politics” i.e not the “expelled” general secretary, and that the party should unitedly fight to win the 2021 Assembly elections by April-May, against the “common enemy” (DMK). This challenges the ruling party’s perspective of isolating Ms. Sasikala as a politically hostile entity.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who is to lead party’s campaign and has immensely projected his confidence of return for AIADMK’s third term, had his underlying concerns about what role Sasikala might take after release from prison. He had rushed to Delhi for consultations with the Prime Minister and Home Minister on matters related to his party’s alliance with BJP whereafter he firmly ruled out any accommodation for Sasikala in AIADMK.

As a first step, Government \filed a complaint with police against the use of party flag by Sasikala on her car (as she did on February 8). Secondly, the Collectorate was directed to confiscate the property of her relatives who also served prison sentence with her. This had been directed in the Court order in the Disproportionate Assets case in 2017

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The AIAMDK reiterated that Sasikala and those with her had nothing to do with the party and that it was illegal on their part to use the party flag as she travelled in a car sporting it, for the second time in the last two weeks For Sasikala, her future would be dedication to the welfare of the party which, ‘Amma’ had said would remain and rule for 100 years.

“To continue her vision, I will dedicate the remaining days of my life to the welfare of the party,” she said. “We must make sure our common enemy doesn’t come to power again, that’s my aim. We should win the upcoming election and dedicate the victory to our Amma,” she said. Sasikala is expected to unfold her plans further when she meets the media.

First reactions on Sasikala glibly noted (before her press release) that she and her nephew Mr T T V Dhinakaran, General Secretary of AMMA (Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam) accompanying her ,were serving as ‘part B team for DMK.

But there were a large number of the ruling party members participating in the receptions during her return journey.

The AIADMK Government in Tamil Nadu is now firmly in alliance with BJP whose President Mr J P Nadda visited Chennai recently and he also addressed the state-level BJP getting well-organised with plans to push for a significant presence for the national party in the South. For Mr Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister Mr O. Panneerselvam, the tough task is to ensure more cohesion than dissidence in the aftermath of return of Sasikala (regarded as “Chinnamma” by followers).

Mr Palaniswami has announced a major crop loan waiver (over Rs.10,000 crores) which the DMK and Congress has dismissed as “political stunt” and one aimed at benefitting more of AIADMK men. The Modi Government has provided for a large roadways programme, with special reference to Tamil Nadu. The Prime Minister is visiting Tamil Nadu on February 14 for inauguration of metro and other projects and also launch the party’s campaign, as ally of AIADMK.

The Chief Minister claims receiving people’s confidence in his campaign meetings for winning a majority for the AIADMK-led alliance in the forthcoming Assembly poll. The leader of opposition, DMK, Mr M K Stalin has been making intense visits of constituencies and has held out promises of time-bound actions on their needs, demands and requests within the first 100 days. “With palpable anger against AIADMK Government, and voluntary participation of men and women at Gram Makkal Sabhas, he could sense a landslide victory for the DMK-led alliance.

For the Congress, the major ally for DMK, and possibly contesting about 20 seats, Mr Rahul Gandhi had recently campaigned in western region of Tamil Nadu and brought up national issues like demonetisation which was “a massive blow” for the economy. The country was going through an ideological war. The Modi Government policies, he said, had crippled the micro, small and medium industry sectors and this Government did not believe in consultations but imposed decisions.

The possibility of a Third Front has been raised by the work done by Mr Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Mayyam (MNM), with its fourth anniversary on February 21. The party was launched with its goal to end corruption and improve living standards of people and create equal opportunities for women. With the two Dravidian rivals securing some 60 per cent of the votes, there are fewer chances of seeing a Third Front making headway in Tamil Nadu.

All the parties await the poll schedule announcement by the Chief Election Commissioner, who is visiting Tamil Nadu by middle of February, before finalising their alliances and seat-sharing among the partners. (IPA Service)