Inconsequential homecoming?

There will be hype and hoopla, possibly a grand reception evoking a wide range of sentiments like excitement, anticipation and fear. Yes, it is V.K. Sasikala, who has been released from the Parappana Agrahara prison on completion of her four year prison term, who will be evoking all these and even more when she comes home to Chennai on her discharge from hospital. However, the common man wants to know if she can turn the politics of Tamil Nadu upside down. Indeed many find it intriguing as to how someone who has never ever run for any office, not even a panchayat ward councillor post, could invoke such extraordinary fear in the minds of the top honchos of the ruling AIADMK. Even in the party she had held the post of general secretary for a very brief insignificant period before being unceremoniously thrown out.

But when the party leaders crack down on an ordinary cadre in a district for putting out a wall poster welcoming Ms Sasikala, it only points to the fear that has gripped them. The inauguration of the mausoleum and the memorial for former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in a jiffy is another pointer to the pervading fear. Even when Edappadi K. Palaniswami avers that he was made chief minister not by Sasikala, the fear is palpable.

It’s an open secret that as the reigning confidant of the former party head and chief minister, Ms Sasikala was calling the shots in the party and the government and obviously there had been too many beneficiaries of her largesse and kind heartedness, who would have enjoyed power or made pelf. And not all of them would be as amnesiac as Mr Palaniswami. But even if hordes of avid loyalists and grateful souls rush in to welcome her, Ms Sasikala’s say and stay in politics would depend solely on the will of the people, who would decide with their valuable votes.