Sasikala returns amidst enthusiastic welcome
Determined to capture the reins of AIADMK and to lead the party to victory in the Assembly elections, V.K. Sasikala, former aide of J. Jayalalithaa, returned to Chennai on Monday after four years of incarceration in Bengaluru with lakhs of supporters lining up to welcome her all along the highway.
Speaking near Vaniyambadi, Sasikala evoked the sentiments of the crowd by quoting an old MGR song to drive home the point that she was a slave to love, a slave to Tamil culture and a slave to her people but would never be cowed down by oppression.
Calling for unity in the AIADMK, by terming the party cadre as children of one mother, she wanted them to be on a single line as her aim was to ensure that their common enemy was prevented from coming to power.
“We shall not give in to the divide and rule policy of our enemy. Our great organisation should not be wrecked for the personal likes and dislikes of some individuals,” she declared, hitting out at both the DMK and also the present AIADMK leadership.
Till her last breath she would work for the party and strive for its growth, she said adding that the party was her family and her family was her party. Jayalalithaa children were her children, she declared to the crowd.
AIADMK had risen like a Phoenix whenever it went through tough times and it would face all odds, she said to the crowds that eagerly gathered to accord a grand reception to the former party general secretary, who was expelled by the present leadership.
All through her journey on the Bengaluru-Chennai Highway, flowers, bouquets, garlands, folk dances, aarthis and poornakumbham welcomed her with hordes of supporters, waving both the AIADMK and AMMK flags all along as her convoy inched its way home making stopovers for her receive the people’s greetings.
Sasikala, who started from the farmhouse in Bengaluru’s suburb, where she has been staying since her release from the Parappana Agrahara jail on January 27, in a car with the AIADMK flag fluttering on the bonnet at 7.40 am was escorted till the Tamil Nadu border by a Karnataka police vehicle. As she entered the state borders around 10 am, the flag was removed from her vehicle. But, Sasikala herself changed vehicles and boarded a Toyota MUV with the AIADMK flag on the bonnet.
Though the police had given prior warning that she would not be allowed to use the flag of the party from which she had been expelled, nothing could be done to the flag on the vehicle, which belonged to an AIADMK functionary.
Driving through a sea of supporters who had gathered at various points on the highway, Sasikala, in a shimmering green saree and facemask, accepted the greetings of the people with folded hands. Wherever her vehicle slowed down or stopped, flower petals were showered over it.
The accumulation of flowers on the car’s front windshield had to be repeatedly cleared and at one point an AMMK flag was used to clear the petals. Several cars and escort vehicles of private security personnel formed part of the convoy that meandered its way towards Chennai, causing severe traffic snarls at various points.
The lighting of fire crackers to welcome Sasikala near the Krishnagiri toll gate caused a fire that engulfed two vehicles.