The rise and fall of VK Sasikala

For thirty years, VK Sasikala was known for her association with the most powerful woman in Tamil Nadu. Described by most as a friend of Jayalalithaa, a ‘shadow’ by some others, it was the late Chief Minister, who saved the kindest words for Sasikala, describing her as “almost like a sister.”

Then more than four years ago, when Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5, 2016 after battling illness in a Chennai hospital, it seemed Sasikala’s time had finally come. She was soon handed over control of the AIADMK, the party her best friend Jayalalitha had run for 27 years until her disappearance and her promotion to the post of Chief Minister seemed almost inevitable.

However, his dreams were cut short by the Supreme Court on February 14, 2017 when it upheld his conviction in the disproportionate assets case. On January 27, Sasikala was formally released from Parappana Agrahara Jail in Bengaluru after serving her four years in prison. His return was expected to create waves in Tamil Nadu politics before the Assembly elections. However, on Wednesday, the 66-year-old took her rivals and supporters by surprise by announcing her decision to leave politics.

“I never wanted a position or power. I am always grateful for the people of Tamil Nadu. I leave politics and pray to my sister (late CM Jayalalithaa) and to God for establishing good government. “” Amma’s true followers must fight to fight the ‘evil’ DMK and aim to establish Amma’s government, “he said. in a press release.

TNM tracks the rise and fall of VK Sasikala.

Born in 1957 to a farming couple, Vivekanandam and Krishnaveni, Sasikala grew up in Mannargudi with her five siblings. Although Sasikala’s family was not wealthy, they belonged to the influential Kallar community.

In 1973, she married M. Natarajan, who was an employee of the state’s Information and Public Relations Directorate, with the head of DMK and later the prime minister, M Karunanidhi, even presiding over their wedding.

But the couple went through difficult times early in their marriage. In an interview with Shobha Warrier for Rediff, V Chandralekha, who was a South Arcot fundraiser in the early 1980s, said that Natarajan lost his job during the Emergency and was unemployed for four years between 1976 and 1980. While he was eventually reinstated and sent as a PRO from Chandralekha after a court case, it was presumably during the interim period that Sasikala opened a video rental store in Chennai.

“Sasikala used to come and tell me their stories, like how they were victimized, etc. She used to tell me that her jewelry was sold and pawned to fight the case. He then set up a video rental store in Chennai. Jayalalithaa used to be one of his clients. She did not know that the films were taken for Jayalalithaa, as it was a servant who used to collect the videos, ”Chandralekha recalled.

The beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Soon the video rental business turned into videography, after Sasikala went to Singapore to buy video recorders for filming weddings and other functions. It was then that Sasikala turned to her husband’s boss, Chandralekha, to help boost her fledgling business.

Chandralekha said: “One day Sasikala wanted me to say a few words to Jayalalithaa as she was All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s propaganda secretary at the time and used to attend a large number of functions. Sasikala asked me, could you recommend my name? I recommended her name to Jayalalithaa and told her that I knew Sasikala and her husband were my PRO. “

Chandralekha’s performance was enough to seal the beginning of a lifelong friendship. After Sasikala and her crew filmed several of Jayalalithaa’s performances, “a good partnership developed,” Natarajan told NDTV.

The partnership grew into trust when Natarajan and his wife supported Jayalalithaa during one of his darkest hours as a politician, following the death, in 1987, of his mentor and then-chief minister MG Ramachandran.

While Sasikala and her husband moved into the Poes Garden residence of “Veda Nilayam” Jayalalithaa shortly after MGR’s death, Natarajan was expelled in 1990 for trying to “dominate” Jayalalithaa.

From then on, Sasikala remained the only figure in Jayalalithaa’s life, sharing her moments of triumphs and defeats. From running the Poes Garden house and taking care of all the needs of Jayalalithaa to entertaining political visitors and controlling Jaya TV, the party’s spokesperson, Sasikala, in Chandralekha’s words, became “indispensable” to Jayalalithaa.

When Jayalalithaa was catapulted to power in 1991, Sasikala’s influence in the party and in government grew. In the public eye, every step and misstep that Jayalalithaa took in her early years as a state administrator, Sasikala was not far behind.

They attended the Mahamaham festival together in Kumbakonam in 1992, with Sasikala pouring holy water on her friend, even as a stampede broke out a few meters away, killing more than 50 people, as the crowd pushed and shoved to see the Chief Minister. .

But the trust and faith that Jayalalithaa placed in her was never more evident than when she adopted Sasikala VN’s nephew, Sudhakaran, as her adopted son. The extravagant wedding that Jayalalithaa held for her adopted son, whom she later disowned, saw friends dressing up as twins, in red silk saris with matching gold and diamond jewelry. If wedding photos were something to go through, some may even say that Sasikala was, in many ways, just like Jayalalithaa.

When Jayalalithaa was defeated in the 1996 Assembly elections after her first term in power, many directly blamed Sasikala and her family. The public display of wealth at Sudhakaran’s wedding shocked and angered an electorate who decided to vote in the DMK. But the electoral defeat was only the beginning of their problems.

With archrival Karunanidhi back at the helm, Jayalalithaa became embroiled in several corruption cases. She soon announced that she was keeping a distance from her friend. But Sasikala was also named in 39 cases and was arrested in June 1996 for alleged illegal foreign exchange transactions.

Sasikala, who spent 10 months in jail, was reportedly under tremendous pressure to become an approver and implicate Jayalalithaa in the cases, writes R Ramasubramanian in Rediff. Citing an AIADMK official, the website claims that Sasikala refused to do so, supporting Jayalalithaa. His imprisonment, the painting says, “cemented his relationship” with ‘Amma’. Having passed the loyalty test, Sasikala was back in the Poes Garden.

Jayalalithaa created the image of ‘Amma’, “a leader for the people and by the people,” having disowned and estranged her own family. But even when she gave up her jewelry and silk saris, leaving the years of glitz and splendor behind, her best friend Sasikala surrounded Jayalalithaa with her family members, who sold their influence on the state.

“They are everywhere,” an experienced IPS official told The News Minute in May 2016, seven months before Jayalalithaa disappeared, “they are very manipulative and try to handle everything. His men are everywhere, from Jaya TV to the ministers’ offices, and they have puppets in the police and IAS from top to bottom … And they do not omit anything, even the bicycle stop contracts at bus stops are accepted by they “.

Accusations such as “extra-constitutional authority” and “exploitation” were whispered even as the “Mannargudi Mafia”, as the Sasikala clan came to be known, became synonymous with corruption.

The turbulence, however, returned to their friendship in 2011. Reports of Sasikala plotting against Jayalalithaa reached the Chief Minister. In one quick move, the AIADMK leader kicked her partner and her family out of Poes Garden and the party. A brief statement issued at that time instructed the AIADMK cadres not to have a truck with Sasikala and the others expelled from the party.

But Sasikala returned to Poes Garden within 100 days of his expulsion. A touching letter he had written was broadcast on Jaya TV. She said: “Not in my wildest dreams have I ever thought of betraying ‘akka’. For 24 years I have been living under the same roof. I have no ambitions either in the party or in the government. I have always dedicated my life to ‘akka’ and the rest of my life will be to serve her. “

The fall

Sasikala kept her promise, staying with Jayalalithaa during her 75-day hospitalization until her death. He soon emerged from the shadows to claim his leader’s legacy.

On December 29, 2016, more than three weeks after Jayalalithaa’s death, Sasikala was appointed General Secretary of AIADMK. In her inaugural speech at the party headquarters, Sasikala invoked her best friend’s name several times. But it was not just Jayalalithaa’s name that Sasikala attracted attention. From sporting the same pottu the late CM wore to emulating Jayalalithaa’s hairstyle of a low bun wrapped in a black hairnet, Sasikala’s makeover seemed like a conscious effort to look like Jaylalithaa’s successor.

But a storm was coming. Public anger was mounting: Questions were raised about Jayalalithaa’s hospitalization and eventual passing, voices growing louder about her oath as Chief Minister. And then on February 7, 2017, then-Acting Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, considered a loyalist to Jayalalithaa, launched his rebellion against Sasikala. It marked the beginning of the factional dispute that the AIADMK would be dominated by for the next few months. It was also the beginning of Sasikala’s downfall. A week later, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling in the disproportionate assets case, sentencing Sasikala and her two relatives to four years in prison.

On February 8, Sasikala returned to Tamil Nadu after being released from prison. However, the party I was hoping to return to is no longer the same. Edappadi Palaniswami, who was chosen by Sasikala to lead the government, turned on her to keep the sinking ship AIADMK afloat. He negotiated a peace with O Panneerselvam and merged the two factions of the party in August 2017. The final blow was the fulfillment of the condition for the merger: expelling Sasikala and his nephew TTV Dhinakaran, who was tasked with leading the AIADMK in its absence.

Today at the age of 66, she is forced to renounce any electoral ambition and is prevented from participating at the polls for six years, having been convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Law. Deprived of partying, power, and a best friend, Sasikala now returns to the shadows once more. However, this is policy and even retirement doesn’t have to be permanent.

This article was originally published in February 2017 and has been updated.