Why Sasikala’s return to politics could spoil the prospects of AIADMK in Tamil Nadu

In 2021, when I met her at her residence in T.Nagar, Chennai, V.K. Sasikala, a close aide of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, had many anecdotes and emotional moments to share from her life. My conversations with her were endless, lasting for many hours. I spent most of the lockdown days during the second wave of Covid-19 meeting Sasikala and listening to her recount stories from her days with Jayalalithaa.

And now, five years later, at a public meeting in Kottaimedu near Pasumpon in Ramanathapuram district, V. K. Sasikala opened up once again. Most of those were the anecdotes and off-the-record stories she had once narrated to me while we sat inside her residence in T. Nagar. 

Yes. Sasikala, who chose to “step aside” from active politics in 2021, has now returned to the political arena, but much of the earlier fervour appears to have faded. Standing on a stage erected a few kilometres away from the venue at the memorial of U. Muthuramalinga Thevar, the former leader of the Forward Bloc, Sasikala had a strong message to the brethren from her own Mukkulathor community. 

Although Sasikala did not explicitly project herself as the leader of the Mukkulathor community — the influential Thevar grouping comprising three sub-castes in southern Tamil Nadu — her choice of words and style of narration resonated deeply with women in the region. Many of them remain hardcore followers of Jayalalithaa and continue to adhere closely to the norms of the Thevar community. 

The woman who once controlled the corridors of power from behind the scenes and who remained silent, or perhaps silenced for over nine years, on Tuesday launched her party flag—red, black and white colour with the faces of C.N. Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa on it. She is yet to name her party. 

“I remained silent all these years, hoping for unity, but the present circumstances have forced me to take this decision,” she said. Sasikala’s party launch event was more of symbolism, reminding every stakeholder involved in her brief exit from politics of the many untold stories. 

She targeted AIADMK general secretary and former chief minister  Edappadi K. Palaniswami, accusing him of “betraying” and “backstabbing” her for making him the chief minister of the state. Sasikala recounted in detail the behind-the-scenes developments that led to Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s elevation as chief minister in 2017. She also offered an elaborate account of the events inside the Koovathur resort in 2021, explaining why former chief minister O. Panneerselvam chose to sit on a Dharma Yudham. She also recalled how and why the old disproportionate assets case against her and Jayalalithaa came up all of a sudden, ultimately leading to her incarceration in the Parappana Agrahara prison.

Sasikala’s return has once again shifted attention to the turbulent days of the AIADMK in 2016, in the immediate aftermath of Jayalalithaa’s death. The most dramatic Koovathur days of the party MLAs, and how Palaniswami slowly began controlling power by ousting the once most powerful ‘Mannargudi family'.

Untold stories

While she narrated many incidents without naming Palaniswami and how he “betrayed” her, Sasikala did not open up on the high-profile IT raids conducted in Jayalalithaa’s residences in 2018, what was stolen from Jayalalithaa’s swanky Kodanad Bungalow and who orchestrated the heist. She didn’t open up on why she stepped aside from active politics in 2021, with a promise to come back and the prolonged delay in staging the comeback. 

Sasikala’s answers in the coming days to these unanswered questions could spell doom for Palaniswami. Sources close to her say that she plans to visit every district in southern Tamil Nadu, recounting the stories of betrayal and explaining why she was forced to wait for over nine years. More than that, she is not ready to trust the BJP and the RSS leaders who once promised a political reentry for her. 

The political significance

Sasikala’s reentry after nine long years, of course, happened with the support of a few former AIADMK office bearers and former police officer Velladurai, who hails from her own Mukkulathor community in Tirunelveli. Velladurai, a retired Additional Superintendent of Police, was once her nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s candidate in Ambasamudram. Along with him were former Thiruvallur MLA Narasimhan and former Kancheepuram MLA Mulachur R Perumal. 

Sasikala may not control any political fiefdom capable of securing victories on her own. But she will spoil the prospects of the AIADMK-AMMK combine in the southern districts from Tiruchirapalli to Virudhunagar. In at least 60 constituencies in Dindigul, Theni, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Trichy districts, Sasikala’s speech and her presence are all set to spoil the prospects of the AIADMK. Her community influence could end up as a spoiler for the Opposition party, which used to bank on the Thevar community votes in the region, until the death of Jayalalithaa. 

Sasikala might have been out of the political game for the past nine years without any influential support from her own family, without a political identity, without a party and without a symbol. But she still continues to command a powerful presence among a section of her own Mukkulathor community. Given her experience of operating behind the scenes in devising Jayalalithaa’s every political move for over three decades, the former chief minister’s aide is all set to cause a dent in the AIADMK arithmetics with the addition of Dhinakaran in the southern districts. 

Though Sasikala’s return may not make strong headlines, it is all set to rewrite the fortunes of the AIADMK in the upcoming 2026 election. But the rewriting is possible only if Sasikala continues to narrate those untold stories to the general public, particularly the women in the south.