Amma in Waiting
The mercurial Sasikala has announced that she is backing off, but for how long?
At around 9.30 pm on March 3, V.K. Sasikala, 66, the long-time confidante of the late J. Jayalalithaa, released a two-page statement to journalists waiting outside her T Nagar home in Chennai. In a dramatic turnaround, Chinnamma (younger mother), as she was reverentially called by her former colleagues at the AIADMK, announced that she was ‘staying away’ from politics. ‘To ensure the continuation of the golden rule of the AIADMK for more than 100 years, just as my sister (Jayalalithaa) wished…the true cadre of Amma should stay united and work together for the upcoming polls, as they are the children of one mother,’ said the statement.
She appealed to party loyalists to unite against ‘the evil force that is the DMK’. Predictably, it sent some in the ruling AIADMK into paroxysms of ecstasy. “Her decision shows that the souls of MGR (party founder M.G. Ramachandran) and Amma are protecting the AIADMK,” said party coordinator K.P. Munuswamy.
During the grand welcome on her release from a Bengaluru prison (on February 8) and the 23-hour journey back to Chennai, Sasikala had vowed to continue in politics though she is barred from contesting polls till 2027 (including the next assembly poll in 2026). Sources say a BJP interlocutor along with a member of the cabal that she steered to amass huge assets during Jayalalithaa’s reign (assets worth more than Rs 2,000 crore have been attached by the income tax authorities) ‘counseled’ Sasikala to withdraw for now. While welcoming the decision “that will help fulfil Amma’s dream”, BJP national general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu, C.T. Ravi, denied that his party had any role in influencing it.
Ramu Manivannan, head, department of politics and public administration, Madras University, feels that “the core pressure” came from the BJP. “Sasikala has only one way forward—wait and watch while working silently for the defeat of the AIADMK. Her future is inextricably linked to the defeat and dissolution of the present AIADMK leadership,” he says.
Recently, she filed a petition in a Chennai civil court seeking to expedite her plea challenging the decision by an AIADMK general council in September 2017 that removed her as the party interim general secretary (a post she assumed following the passing of Jayalalithaa). The case comes up for hearing next on March 15. Her dramatic declaration to stay away from politics is hard to take at face value until—and if—she withdraws that petition.