Eighty kilometres south of Chennai, along the scenic East Coast Road, lies Golden Bay, the city’s first luxury backwater resort. The drive to the place can be an enjoyable experience. Traffic is light, the shore is spread out before you, and dotting the road are coconut trees and palm groves. Roll down the windows, and the sea breeze would greet you.
The resort lies beyond the historic town of Mahabalipuram and the Kalpakkam nuclear power plant. Spread across five acres and surrounded by shallow backwaters on three sides, the resort and its serene environs are the last thing you would associate with the word turbulence. But turbulence, of the political kind, is what Golden Bay has come to symbolise in the past few days.
It all began on the afternoon of February 9, when the owner of the resort got a call from an AIADMK leader, who wanted to book rooms in bulk—that, too, immediately. The management, however, was hesitant, as some tourists had already made reservations. But since most of the rooms were unoccupied, they made arrangements to accommodate the leader’s request.
Sometime later, though, the staff at the resort were informed that the 100-odd legislators, for whom the rooms were booked, would be taken to Delhi and that the booking stood cancelled. Then, at 10.30pm, the rooms were rebooked. Around an hour later, a bus carrying around 100 men clad in white shirts and dhotis and a few women clad in saris arrived. By midnight, all rooms were occupied and the kitchen went into overdrive. Special non-vegetarian dishes were prepared for the guests.
That night made Golden Bay the centre of Tamil Nadu’s political storm. By herding the MLAs to the resort, V.K. Sasikala, the AIADMK’s interim general secretary, had tightened her grip on the party. She had also stolen a march over her rival, O. Panneerselvam, in the unravelling power struggle in the state. While Panneerselvam alleged that the MLAs were being held hostage, Sasikala said they were housed in a safe location to prevent them from being lured by him.
“We are very comfortable,” MLA Rajan Chellappa told THE WEEK a few days later. “We came on our own and we are not held captive or lodged here forcibly.”
Sources, however, told THE WEEK on condition of anonymity that only half of the 123 legislators housed at the resort were staying there of their own free will. They said none of the resort’s amenities, including the floating restaurant and massage parlours, were used by the legislators on the first day. In fact, nobody was allowed to go out. The resort staff, who numbered around 40, were not even allowed to take phone calls. “Vegetables, groceries and other requirements were taken care of by outsiders close to the Mannargudi family [Sasikala’s relatives],” said one source. “Alcohol and non-veg dishes were all the MLAs had for the first few days.” Apparently, mutton paya, mutton biryani and chicken made up the main menu.
Cooks from outside took control of the kitchen. Legislators were given the option to have lunch either in their rooms or at the restaurant. Sources said the kitchen was up and running round the clock, and for good reason: apart from the legislators, food had to be prepared for around 300 private security personnel who guarded the premises.
Days began as early as 7am for most MLAs. Sources close to some of them said those who were diabetic and had lifestyle diseases were so afraid of the security personnel that they skipped their walks and routine exercises. On the second and third day, some of them got into a fight with the security staff, saying they were diabetic and needed medicines. “The medicines were made to reach the resort on time,” said the source.
MLAs were allowed to sit together and chat, and ask for anything except out-passes. Most of them did not have access to newspapers, TV and phones, said the source. In fact, only around 40 MLAs inside the resort were allowed to come out and pose for pictures when Sasikala arrived at the resort a few days later. “They are her staunch supporters,” the source said. Even senior leaders, such as health minister C. Vijayabhaskar, were not allowed to talk to the media.
The security personnel were told to stop the MLAs from fleeing. On February 13, however, one of the MLAs, S.S. Saravanan of Madurai South, went out through the rear gate and swam ashore. “I never knew that we were taken to the resort to be held captive,” said Saravanan. “We all got into the bus on February 9 because we were told that we were going to meet the governor.”
From day two onwards, the legislators were allowed to use the swimming pool and the massage parlour. “The first two days, we had been afraid. We did not use cellphones and there was no TV. But since Sunday [February 12], we are in our comfort zone,” said an MLA.
Sources said that there was a reason Sasikala had chosen Golden Bay. Apparently, the resort was started by a Chennai-based businessman called Bhaktavatchalam, who hails from Thanjavur and belongs to the influential Thevar community. He started out with a medical shop and later entered into the real estate business, and is said to have links with the Mannargudi family.
Things began to change on February 13, when Sasikala came to the resort. She reportedly had a long chat with women MLAs late into the night. Sources said she looked very upset and that she was in tears the following day, when the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.
The verdict came at 10.30am, but sources said she came out of her room only two hours later. She requested the legislators not to support Panneerselvam, even if they were against her. “She told us that she would even fall at our feet to request not to support him,” said an MLA. She left the resort on the night of February 14, after telling them that she would soon be back to lead the party and the government.
Saravanan, who escaped from the resort to take Panneerselvam’s side, has lodged a complaint against Sasikala and Edappadi K. Palaniswami, whom she has nominated for the post of CM, saying they had abducted the MLAs. If Saravanan swam to escape from the resort, another MLA who supports Panneerselvam, S.P. Shanmuganathan, was smart enough not to board the bus. According to sources, Shanmuganathan had been in charge of getting MLAs to board the bus, but he slipped away saying he was feeling giddy and wanted to take medicines. He later surfaced at Panneerselvam’s residence.
At Thenpennai, Panneerselvam’s official residence, celebrations started after the Supreme Court came out with its verdict. Crackers were burst and supporters were seen congratulating a visibly happy Panneerselvam, who seemed unmindful of the fact that the verdict also indicted his idol, the former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who was the first accused in the case. “Justice prevailed,” he said.
Even as the verdict dealt a crushing blow to her political ambitions, Sasikala named Palaniswami as the party’s CM designate. Within hours, Palaniswami and 11 others, including former minister and AIADMK’s new presidium chairman K.A. Sengottaiyan and Sasikala’s nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran, called on Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao. They requested Rao to invite Palaniswami to form the government. The meeting lasted just two minutes. Soon after the group left, Panneerselvam’s team comprising Rajya Sabha member V. Maitreyan and education minister K. Pandiarajan landed at the Raj Bhavan. That meeting, too, lasted only minutes.
The silence from the Raj Bhavan was in stark contrast to the scenes at Jayalalithaa’s memorial at Marina Beach. Panneerselvam arrived at the memorial in his government car, sirens blaring. Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar also made an appearance. Clad in a black-and-cream sari, a visibly tired Deepa said, “My political entry begins now. I will work with OPS to take the AIADMK in the path shown by my aunt.”
The drama could well have come to close the following day. Before leaving for Bengaluru to surrender before the court, Sasikala appointed Dinakaran as the AIADMK’s deputy general secretary and her brother’s son S. Venkatesh as secretary of the party’s youth wing. Accompanied by Dinakaran, her brother Dhiwakaran, his son Jai Anand, sister-in-law Elavarasi and her son Vivek, Sasikala set out from Poes Garden to the jail in Bengaluru. On the way, she stopped at the Jayalalithaa memorial and paid floral tributes. And then, all of a sudden, she slammed her palm on the grave and said, “I will overcome the hurdles, treachery and plotting against me.”
By then, the police had surrounded Golden Bay, apparently in a bid to escort the MLAs outside. Some of the security personnel at the resort were taken into custody. According to sources, some of the MLAs are so angry that, once they are let out, they would come out in support of Panneerselvam.
Towards evening, as Governor Rao called meetings with both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, the stage seemed set for the ending of the political drama. That, however, did not happen. As this report goes to print, the governor is yet to make his stand clear. He is expected to call for a floor test, but whether it would solve the deadlock remains uncertain.
What is certain, though, is that what has happened in the past few days will have long-term implications for Tamil Nadu politics.
