Sasikala to take over? Chinamma to be CM, say sources

Various sources have told several news media organisations that the big AIADMK meeting on Sunday will also witness a change of guard. 

 

According to these sources, AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala may take over as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, replacing Jaya loyalist O Panneerselvam. Panneerselvam had taken over just after Jayalalithaa had died, on December 9. 

 

This decision, the sources said, would be taken by the AIADMK MLAs on Sunday, when a major meeting has been planned. Sources have indicated that should Sasikala take over on Sunday, then she will be asked to contest for her Assembly seat from RK Nagar constituency, and be sworn in as CM on February 9 post that. 

Adding fuel to these rumours is the news that the top three bureaucrats in TN (including Jaya favourite Sheela Balakrishnan) were asked to resign on Friday night.

 

Watch: Sasikala’s journey from small-time videographer to AIADMK’s power centre

 

Over the previous few days, Sasikala has also reassigned several party posts. Former ministers K A Sengottaiyan, S Gokula Indira and B V Ramana, besides ex-Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy, were appointed as the party's organisation secretaries. Sasikala also announced the appointments of various senior leaders, including fisheries minister D Jayakumar, to a number of posts.

 

Ambattur MLA V Alexander was also removed as AIADMK's MGR Youth Wing secretary. He will, however, continue as the party's Tiruvallore (East) District Secretary, a statement said.

Watch: The power of Chinnamma after Amma

The move comes at the end of nearly a month of calls by various party leaders within the AIADMK, who have continuously appealed for a takeover by Sasikala. The move can also be seen as a dual counter to the rising threat from Jayalalithaa's niece J. Deepa and the ongoing case against Sasikala and her son. 

 

Even Panneerselvam seems to have accepted this, at some level. In the banners welcoming Sasikala on December 31, when she arrived at the AIADMK office to take over as party chief, Panneerselvam described himself as 'Treasurer of the AIADMK' and not as the chief minister. It went on to poetically say "The sister who was not born with Amma, who worked hard, like how a candle melts and protected Amma and the party, I fall at your feet to welcome you."

 

Barely three months after Jayalalithaa's death, Sasikala has consolidated herself in the corridors of power in Chennai. Posters and banners, an adulatory filmy beat anthem, souvenirs are visual evidence that AIADMK's Chinnamma has arrived. 

 

Since its founding, the AIADMK has never seemingly had a succession plan, be it in the MGR era or post-Jayalalithaa. From being Jayalalithaa’s veritable shadow, Sasikala, or Chinamma as she is called, has calibrated her rise to be the most powerful woman in Tamil Nadu.

Despite the impediments Sasikala faces, her political acumen cannot be underestimated. Given her long association with Jayalalithaa, going back to the 1980s, she has the backing of the party’s senior leaders and is expected to spearhead the party. Unless there is a crippling legal setback, the AIADMK is set to surge forward under Sasikala’s leadership.

 

While it impossible to predict the future of the party, it is interesting to hark back to a quote by Jayalalithaa: “The AIADMK has always worked for the people. Whoever comes after me ... even a 100 years later ... AIADMK will continue to be a people’s party.”

 

Time will tell if that turns out to be true.