TN govt fortifies places with Jaya link
CHENNAI: With VK Sasikala, the close aide and confidante of the late J Jayalalithaa, set to return to Chennai on Sunday, the ruling AIADMK is ensuring that it is firmly in control of some of the physical manifestations of the former chief minister’s legacy — her burial place and her residence.
Late Tuesday, the public works department (PWD) temporarily closed entry for the public to a ₹80 crore memorial built for Jayalalithaa on Marina beach, citing unfinished work just a week after it was opened. In a massive show of strength, chief minister E Palaniswami had inaugurated the memorial on January 27 — the same day as Sasikala’s release from prison.
“The work will take at least 15 days to be complete,” said a senior PWD official who asked not to be named. Though the main structure is complete, work is on at a museum and an educational room for students. “It is difficult to complete this work with crowds thronging,” AIADMK spokesperson D Jayakumar said on Wednesday.
Though Sasikala completed her
four-year prison sentence in the disproportionate assets case in Bengaluru last week, she was being treated for Covid-19 at the city’s Victoria hospital, and is in quarantine. Jayalalithaa’s burial place is likely to be one of the stops for Sasikala when she returns to Chennai on February 7. Four years ago, while she was on her way to Bengaluru to surrender, she had halted here and thumped her palm thrice on the ground, taking a vow.
Jayalalithaa’s sprawling residence, Veda Nilayam at Poes Garden, is also being guarded by police barricades. A day after opening Jayalalithaa’s mausoleum, Palaniswami had inaugurated her residence as a memorial with several riders from the Madras high court including not to open it to the public.
The government’s acquisition and transformation of the property is being challenged in court by Jayalalithaa’s legal heirs — niece J Deepa and nephew J Deepak. Sasikala moved in here with Jayalalithaa in 1988. She lived there permanently even after Jayalalithaa’s death, except for brief periods in 1996 and 2012 when Jayalalithaa banished her.
Sasikala was building a bungalow opposite this property before it was attached by the Income Tax department in October 2020. Sasikala will be staying in Chennai’s T Nagar near the house of her niece Krishnapriya -- whose mother J Ilavarasi is an accused in the same case and will also be released from Bengaluru prison on February 5. “From Hosur up to her T Nagar house she will receive a grand welcome,” said her nephew TTV Dhinakaran, who floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) with a breakaway faction of Sasikala’s supporters who want her to reclaim the AIADMK.
Sasikala also plans to file a curative petition to claim the AIADMK’S name and iconic “two leaves” symbol which presently belongs to the Palaniswami-led. “In 2019 parliamentary elections and assembly bypolls, AMMK contested against two-leaves symbol and tried to divide the AIADMK so no cadre or people of Tamil Nadu will accept them,” said Jayakumar.
“AIADMK wants to pre-empt the Sasikala faction from encashing on Jayalalithaa’s legacy and the memorial is a symbol of those efforts,” said political commentator Maalan Narayanan. “Sasikala may also show her strength by making a trip to the memorial to counter the AIADMK but it will be a one-day show and may not have a lingering effect.”
Meanwhile, AIADMK on Wednesday night removed its Karnataka secretary M P Yuvaraj for ‘bringing disrepute to the party’. “He has been trying to meet Sasikala for the past two days. That is wrong,” said a senior AIADMK leader seeking anonymity.