India party picks chief after death of star
NEW DELHI // The party of Jayalalithaa Jayaram, a powerful Indian politician who died earlier this month, picked one of the former leader’s closest aides to succeed her yesterday, ending weeks of speculation.
The death of the 68- year- old – a former film star popularly known as “Amma” or “Mother” to her followers – on December 5 sparked an outpouring of grief across the southern state of Tamil Nadu, with huge crowds lining the streets to pay tribute at her coffin.
It also plunged the state into political uncertainty, leaving observers in doubt over whether potential successors to the leadership of the ruling All In- dia Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party could command the mass loyalty she enjoyed. Yesterday, the AIADMK announced on Twitter that it had elected Jayalalithaa’s close friend, V K Sasikala, a 59-yearold former videocassette seller, as its new chief.
Although Ms Sasikala has never held any official position in the AIADMK or the state government before her election, she has long been known as “aunt” to the party because of her friendship with Jayalalithaa. The two women met in the 1980s, kicking off a decades-long friendship dogged by corruption scandals and intermittent spells of bad blood.
They fell out briefly after Jayalalithaa lost power in 1996 when both were arrested on corruption charges.
But Ms Sasikala later rejoined the party, becoming an influential confidante of Jayalalithaa when she returned to power in 2002. In 2014, both were jailed for four years for corruption but were later acquitted.
Ms Sasikala’s ascent is said to mirror Jayalalithaa’s own rise in Tamil politics when she declared herself as the political heir to her mentor and popular film actor M G Ramachandran after his death in 1987.
She became the state’s first female chief minister in 1991.