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A leader close to Sasikala’s family said she would play a powerful role in the party, but will wait before taking over the state administration as the opposition DMK is strong, with 89 MLAs.
It was a day of chaos in the corridors of power in Tamil Nadu. The state’s bureaucracy was completely shaken when income tax officials reached chief secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao’s residence at Anna Nagar in Chennai early in the morning of December 21. The raids were extended to Fort St George, the seat of power. The sleuths seized 134 lakh in new currency notes and two kilograms of gold from Rao’s house. Rao’s son, said sources, confessed to have concealed an income of 15 crore in his business.
But all this had no effect in 81 Poes Garden. High profile visitors continued to call on Sasikala Natarajan, who is being pressured into taking over the reins of the party and the government.
Said AIADMK spokesperson C. Ponnaiyan, “Madam Sasikala has been in active politics for more than three decades, along with our late chief minister [J. Jayalalithaa]. She has the organisational talent, related administrative foresight and the required efficiencies. She has the active backing of the party’s organisational wings.”
Sasikala is the natural successor to Jayalalithaa, say her supporters. Said Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar, “It is not the question of projecting one as the alternative to someone else. Chinnamma is the only heir apparent to Amma. It is our desire that she should lead the party and the state administration.”
Ponnaiyan recalled the days when Sasikala was instrumental in spearheading the Jayalalithaa Peravai (a wing in the party) and increased its membership to 30 lakh. “Sasikala is following the values created by our former leaders, MGR and Amma. And this is why the entire party is rallying behind her,” said Ponnaiyan.
The unanswered question is if Sasikala would remain the general secretary of the party or also aim for the chief minister’s post. Udhayakumar’s logic is that, “the head of the party has always become the head of the state.”
If so, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam will have to step down in favour of Sasikala. “There cannot be two power centres. Panneerselvam, like earlier, will again be a stopgap chief minister,” said a party functionary from his Theni constituency.
A leader close to Sasikala’s family said she would play a powerful role in the party, but will wait before taking over the state administration as the opposition DMK is strong, with 89 MLAs. There are challenges within the ruling party as well. One of them relates to a Rajya Sabha member of the AIADMK, Sasikala Pushpa, who has moved the Supreme Court against Sasikala’s elevation as the party general secretary. Pushpa has also submitted a petition to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking a detailed probe into the death of Jayalalithaa. Many party workers also have opposed Sasikala’s elevation.
The DMK, too, is in a quandary with M. Karunanidhi in hospital. The party’s general council, which was scheduled for December 20, has been postponed. Karunanidhi had time and again, indirectly, identified his son M.K. Stalin as his heir apparent. Now, Stalin’s political acumen in taking on Sasikala will determine the politics in the state. Stalin is capable of taking Sasikala head on. But the dissenting voices in his own family against his succession would remain an obstruction for Stalin.
Political observers are of the opinion that the BJP, which is trying to find its feet in the state, will not let another satrap like Jayalalithaa to grow. Said R. Ramasubramanian, political analyst, “As far as Narendra Modi is concerned, 2019 is his target. And he will not allow regional satraps to grow. The death of Jayalalithaa creates a huge political vacuum in a state which had been dominated by personality oriented politics. So, logically speaking and given Modi’s political acumen and his past history, he won’t relish Sasikala to entrench herself in the state politics.”
