His devotion for J. Jayalalithaa made him break into an adulatory tone whenever he would meet her: “The place wherever Amma is, it's my temple.” Hearing this, she would smile. Another gem of his to which she would burst out laughing was, “Amma peru sonna antarcticala kooda jaichidalam,” (if we say Amma’s name, we can win elections even in Antarctica).”
For those who travel on the state highway from Madurai to Thirumangalam, a bunch of hanging lights and two bronze statues of Jayalalithaa and M.G. Ramachandran, with huge rose garlands, in a sprawling 12-acre plot near T. Kunnathur, is an eye-catcher. Clad in a white dhothi and shirt, R.B. Udhayakumar, the AIADMK candidate from Thirumangalam, sits on a plastic chair along with his party’s booth agents inside a hall, giving out assignments. His mother, Meena, and daughter, Priyadharshini, wait outside the hall, watching him serving dinner for a huge crowd, batch after batch.
“He is always like this. He built this temple for our Amma. He loves her more than he loves me,” says Meena, sitting in the gleaming light from those hanging lamps.
Udhayakumar, a staunch Jayalalithaa bhakt, is seeking re-election from Thirumangalam, the place known for introducing an infamous 'formula' for winning elections.
“But my formula is different,” says Udhayakumar, who is well connected to the people of Thirumangalam. He knows every voter in his constituency personally. “I meet all the 2.76 lakh voters at least 10 times in a year. People feel happy when I meet them,” he says.
Udhayakumar counts people in all the 324 villages, 116 unions, 27 municipalities and 30 panchayats as the members of his family. The man who always fought elections in the name of Jayalalithaa will seek votes in her name this time, too. “Amma cannot be replaced. But now people look at Edappadiyar (Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami) like Amma,” he says.
A lawyer by profession with a masters degree in social work and a bachelors degree in commerce, Udhayakumar’s journey with the AIADMK began in 1984 when he worked as a booth agent for the party. His father, who was a labour officer, was his inspiration to get into the MGR's party during his school days.
His devotion for Jayalalithaa has no limits. “There can be limit for love, but not for bhakti,” he says, as he fondly recalls the days when he was punished for his unlimited devotion. In 2011, when he was appointed the state information minister, he would walk barefoot whenever Jayalalithaa was there. When the media started calling him a “barefoot minister”, the chief minister summoned him and said, “Bhakti is okay. But you are a minister now. Wear chappals.”
On another occasion, he put up tube-lights for an 8.5 km stretch to welcome Jayalalithaa. This was when she went to campaign in a bypoll after the death of AIADMK legislator Mariampichai. Udhayakumar’s only concern was that his leader should not drive down the dark lanes.
After the campaign rally, Jayalalithaa summoned Udhayakumar and questioned him why he had put up those lights.
“It was dark. I can’t allow my theivam (god) to travel when it is dark,” he said. She left the venue unconvinced.
The next day he was summoned again at the secretariat. Jayalalithaa asked the same question and Udhayakumar had the same reply. Minutes later, he was dropped from the cabinet. Undeterred, he was out there the next day, too, to wish his leader when her convoy passed by from the Poes Garden to the secretariat. This time, he was removed from the student wing secretary post. The next day when he wished her, the remaining post left with him—the party in-charge of Virudhunagar and Madurai—was also taken away.
“Amma did all this out of her love and affection for me,” he says as he recalls those days.
After six months, Udhayakumar was back in the cabinet and into the party hierarchy. This was after he flipped off a bouquet from Jayalalithaa’s security officer to meet her during an Assembly session.
“She asked me why I got a bouquet to her. I told Amma, 'I am seeing you after six months; if you don’t want the bouquet, I will leave it in that corner.' She laughed and gave me a new assignment,” he says. The new assignment was to be part of the youth wing, increase AIADMK vote base and campaign against M.K. Stalin.
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“This is Amma. Only those who were dropped and elevated again know the warmth of Amma.”
Udhayakumar was shattered when Jayalalithaa died on December 5, 2016, after 75 days of medical treatment. “I believed she would come back. People like me did not know what was next for us and the party. I never thought we could successfully run the show,” Udhayakumar says.
Now, four years after Jayalalithaa's death, a temple for her stands high. Udhayakumar is one of the AIADMK seniors who badly miss their leader in the field during this election.
