Fishing in Troubled Waters: Sasikala's re-entry bid rattles AIADMK

Even as the AIADMK is licking the wounds suffered in the assembly election, late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's confidant VK Sasikala is trying to fish in troubled waters. She has been releasing audio conversations with party functionaries and cadres, making clear her intentions to take over the party. Also, she is enticing O Panneerselvam (OPS), deepening the existing schism between him and Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS). With her nephew TTV keeping a low profile after a disastrous electoral rout, will she succeed? M C Rajan Bureau Chief, ETV Bharat Chennai explores.

Chennai: Coming out of her self proclaimed political sanyas, the expelled former interim general secretary of the AIADMK, VK Sasikala, is apparently making a determined bid for re-entry into the party. For this, her preferred vehicle is nothing more than audiotapes. Rattling the present dispensation under Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS), she has been unleashing a flurry of audio conversations with party functionaries and the cadre across the state. Not a single day passes without a few phone conversations being released.

“I will come and make things straight. The party is going astray and it cannot be allowed any further,” continues to be her message through those she is speaking to. This has sent alarm bells ringing in the AIADMK, forcing the leadership to crack the whip and launch a purge by expelling 17 members, including a former MP and a party spokesperson. But, this had not deterred her from further releasing more tele-conversations.

The timing she has chosen to test the political waters is also significant. For, the AIADMK is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of power which has accentuated the factional feud between EPS, now the AIADMK legislature party leader, and O Panneerselvam, his deputy. The election of office bearers for the legislature party witnessed prolonged wrangling with OPS having to concede and accept the reality of the party's drift from being a southern Thevar-dominant one to a western Goundar dominant one. Of the 66 AIADMK legislators in the 234-member Assembly, nearly 56 are from the western region from where EPS hails while the south has come a cropper. As such, EPS has gained an increasing grip over the party despite the loss of power.

What more could be an opportune moment for her to make a comeback and emerge out of her self imposed exile? Having tasted political power for long, she was only expected to break her sanyas anytime. As the confidant of the late Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, she had kept the party under her thumbs since the early 90s till she was imprisoned in a disproportionate wealth case in February 2017. On her release from Bengaluru, a month ahead of the Assembly poll, she received a rousing reception and she declared her intention of taking the political plunge. But, even earlier, soon after the demise of Jayalalithaa, she was all set to ascend the Chief Ministerial gaddi only to be halted by the Supreme Court sending her to prison.

But how far can she succeed in her present manoeuvre? Is she making a desperate bid to reclaim her position as the Raj Mata of AIADMK?

Much water has flown under the bridge and the political dynamics in the AIADMK too has changed. The present diarchy of EPS and OPS might not yield any political space for her as it would be at their own peril. Even OPS might not be inclined, though Sasikala is attempting to entice him by claiming in one of her audio that had he not resigned in a huff, he would have been the Chief Minister.

Analysts too aren't hopeful of Sasikala making a re-entry as it would upset the apple cart. In their view, she is still suffering from a hangover from the past. “She believes in the stupidity of the AIADMK cadre, known for hero worship. Those who are talking to her in the tele-conversations are fawning characters. As such, Sasikala is entertaining a belief that she could inherit the legacy of MGR and Jayalalithaa. It is a misplaced one,” explains senior journalist Babu Jayakumar. Moreover, in his view, none of the AIADMK legislators will side with her as it would cost them the MLA post. “The fate of the 18 MLAs of TTV Dhinakaran camp who were axed in the last assembly and whose expulsion was upheld by the High Court, would deter them”, he pointed out.

For the AIADMK, she continues to be a persona non grata. From EPS onwards, party leaders have been maintaining that the doors have been closed for Sasikala once and for all. The acerbic Former Minister CV Shanmugham said, “Even a dry fish could come alive, but Sasikala can't be back in the party.” Yet, they are wary of her machinations and that appears to be her trump card.