Sasikala returns to TN after 4 yrs to a grand welcome
Expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala on Monday returned to Tamil Nadu to a grand reception, days after completing her fouryear jail term in Bengaluru in a corruption case, amid indications of a confrontation with the ruling party which she once controlled. Sasikala, a close aide of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, crossed into Tamil Nadu at Athipalli in Krishnagiri district bordering Karnataka, around 10 am as her supporters broke into celebrations, dancing to drum beats and showering flower petals on her convoy.
Her nephew T T V Dhinakaran, who accompanied her, said she would visit the residence of AIADMK founder and late chief minister M G Ramachandran in Chennai later. He claimed several AIADMK functionaries turned up to welcome Sasikala and that she was travelling in the vehicle of one of the ruling party functionaries after her car developed some issue. Sasikala’s return to Tamil Nadu is being keenly watched for political impact as it comes at a time when the assembly elections in the state are to be held in the next few months.
She underwent her sentence in the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case at the Parapana Agrahara central prison in Bengaluru since February, 2017 and was set free on January 27.
However, she remained at the Government Victoria Hospital, where she had been admitted after testing positive for Covid-19 while under judicial custody. She was discharged from the hospital on January 31 after which she stayed at a resort, about 35 km from Bengaluru.
On Monday morning, she left the resort, accompanied by Dhinakaran, also the general secretary of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, in a convoy of around 200 vehicles as her supporters raised slogans hailing her.
Clad in a green colour saree, the favourite hue of Jayalalithaa, and wearing a face mask, she travelled in a car that sported the AIADMK flag over the bonnet, disregarding the warning by the ruling party in Tamil Nadu against its use by non-members.
The AIADMK has recently petitioned the Tamil Nadu police seeking to restrain ‘non-members’ of the party from using its flag after Sasikala travelled in a car sporting the flag on her discharge from a hospital in Bengaluru on January 31. However, Dhinakaran has defended it, saying she continued to remain the AIADMK general secretary, pointing to petitions pending in court over her ‘expulsion’.
Meanwhile, senior AIADMK leader and fisheries minister D Jayakumar took exception to Sasikala using the party flag and recalled the AIADMK’s police complaint. “Sasikala and her aides have no link to AIADMK... it is illegal for anyone else (other than party functionaries) to use the flag,” he told reporters in Chennai.