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How Sasikala Pushpa turned the tables on Jayalalithaa

  • Sasikala Pushpa says she was slapped by her “leader”
  • Pushpa claims she is being compelled to resign from her post and her life is under threat
  • She was asked to sign on three copies of a resignation letter
  • Claims Tiruchi Siva had used derogatory language about Jayalalithaa
  • Unverified photos of Siva and Pushpa together in circulation 
sasikala pushpa slap jayalalithaa
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First Published Aug 1, 2016, 9:17 AM IST

 

Rajya Sabha MP Sasikala Pushpa broke that Omerta code on Monday and shattered with it, the party's carefully crafted image of a disciplined outfit. Pushpa went after the top leadership of the party, claiming she was slapped by her “leader” (she did not specify if she was referring to Jayalalithaa), that she is being compelled to resign from her post and that her “life is now under threat”. 

 

This was not the script with which Jayalalithaa had sent her batch of MPs from Chennai to Delhi for the Parliament session. Over the weekend, Pushpa had reportedly been summoned by Jayalalithaa for an explanation on what happened at the Delhi airport on Saturday. Pushpa had claimed that DMK MP Tiruchi Siva had used derogatory language about Jayalalithaa and the Tamil Nadu government while speaking to a CISF personnel and an incensed Pushpa had slapped him. 

 

Reports suggest the AIADMK leadership did not quite buy the 40-year-old MP's explanation. Siva is already on record saying he did not say anything about Jayalalithaa to anyone and that there was no provocation for Pushpa to slap him. 

 

Several unverified photographs of Siva and Pushpa together were in circulation before the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections and the pictures suggested an intimate relationship between the two politicians. The grapevine, therefore suggests that a personal equation has gone sour, which Pushpa was trying to put a lid on, by imputing a political reason. 

 

What transpired inside Poes Garden is not known to anyone but if Pushpa's version is to be believed, she was given the rough treatment. “Where is women's safety” she thundered in the Rajya Sabha, even as other AIADMK MPs tried to shout her down. While claiming “gratitude” to Jayalalithaa for making her an MP, she alleged having been “harassed” and “slapped” by her “leader”. 

 

Sources also suggest that she was asked to sign on three copies of a resignation letter, which she now claims were done under duress. On the floor of the Rajya Sabha, she thundered that she won't resign. 

 

Pushpa has now asked for “protection”, claiming she does not feel safe in Tamil Nadu. Understandable because the ‘Amma-devout’ AIADMK cadre is not likely to take lightly to anyone pointing a finger to the very top.

 

Meanwhile, in another twist, the AIADMK IT wing has circulated messages from Pushpa's husband Thilagan, which say, “My wife is doing politics. Amma is my God.”

 

In the din inside the Rajya Sabha, Pushpa claimed she had not been allowed to speak to her husband over the weekend and was brought to Parliament by Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai, a senior AIADMK leader. 

 

The moment the AIADMK saw Pushpa turning rogue, the party expelled her on charges on bringing ill-fame to the party.

 

But political sources in Chennai suggest that the slapgate had little to do with Pushpa's exit. Apparently she was not in the good books of Poes Garden for some months now and the party wanted her to resign as MP.

 

 

An indication of that was when the AIADMK women's wing secretary post was taken away from her in January this year. The circulation of an unverified audio on WhatsApp, in which she is allegedly heard badmouthing ministers for not doing enough during the Tamil Nadu floods, also went against her. The fact that her phone was tapped indicates that someone high up in the AIADMK was gunning for Pushpa, to finish her off politically.  

 

Pushpa's growth within the AIADMK was quite dramatic. She was Mayor of Tuticorin, when she was plucked to become the Rajya Sabha MP in 2014. Now with the party expelling her, she can continue to remain an unattached member till her term ends in 2020. 

 

But if she wants space in the political structure, she has only two options now. Either join the BJP, which, given the cordial relations between Jayalalithaa and Narendra Modi, will be difficult. The DMK could be the other door she could knock on, as it will also ensure some kind of protection for her in Tamil Nadu. 

 

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