Lux and locked up lives of AIADMK MLAs

HOUSE ARREST Party ‘toughies’ keep an eye on ‘select few’ MLAs who are allowed to interact with the media outside the resort

CHENNAI: At least four or five AIADMK workers and activists hover over ‘select few” MLAs, who are allowed to interact with the mediapersons outside the main gate of the Golden Bay resort, an idyllic beach resort, off the East Coast Road that connects Chennai with Puducherry.

Located at Kuvathur close to Mahabalipuram, the resort is an ideal location if one wants to shut self out from the world. And this is what AIADMK, led by V K Sasikala, did to its MLAs. Late on Wednesday, over 100 MLAs were bundled into luxury buses and brought to this resort and locked inside it.

After this issue got blown up into a potentially dangerous political issue for the Sasikala camp, with Panneerselvam officially complaining to the governor and the Madras high court asking the Tamil Nadu police to find out the whereabouts of the missing MLAs, state minister and Sasikala supporter K N Sengottiyan is said to have gone to the resort and gave directions to the menders of the MLAs, alleged to be AIADMK toughies from outside Chennai.

Only a select handful of MLAs, among them SM Das Pandian and Tamil Selvan, were allowed to step out of the resort and speak to mediapersons even as the AIADMK “workers” watched each and every word they spoke.

“You have said enough, now you get inside,” one of the workers ordered. And the MLA meekly obeyed.

These MLAs were paraded before TV cameras to deny all allegations that “the MLAs were held hostage inside the resort” even as governor C Vidyasagar Rao reportedly asked TN DGP about the ‘hostage MLAs’. Even AIADMK spokesperson C R Saraswathi rubbished the allegations and said that “the MLAs were staying there of their own free will,” something that Pandian asserted.

AIADMK’s own workers were guarding the resort and controlled access to the main gate. When a TV journalist wanted to go the resort to book a room, the worker said the hotel was full and that it was a private property and no one was allowed. When the journalist insisted and said she would call police, the worker responded with a “you go and do what you want”.

Inside the resort, the MLAs were denied access to their own phones and all communication channels were snapped. This, however, was denied by Pandian.

“We switched off our phones and we will come out only after Chinnamma calls us,” he said. Another MLA, H T Ramachandran said it was false that their phones were taken away.

AIADMK Rajya Sabha member Dr V Maitreyan, who supports O Panneerselvam, said “let the MLAs come out and say this. As long as they are there, they have to say what they are saying.”

ONLY A FEW MLAS WERE ALLOWED TO SPEAK TO MEDIAPERSONS EVEN AS THE AIADMK “WORKERS” WATCHED EACH AND EVERY WORD THEY SPOKE