Chennai: The adage is discretion is better part of valor. Jayalalithaa’s aide Sasikala has chosen to say quits for now and wait for a better moment to charge in future. She announced on Wednesday after the poll schedule for Tamil Nadu was announced (TN will go to polls on April 6) that she is quitting politics. She asked her cadres to work intelligently so as to keep away the DMK from getting into power. Nobody knows what kind of advice she has got from the BJP. The saffron party was understood to have asked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to accommodate her. But the CM was very reluctant since he had gone too far in opposing her. Her properties were confiscated and cash seized when she was serving her jail term at Agraharam in Bengaluru. Even after she was released from jail in January 2021 and reached Chennai with a lot of fanfare, there were raids on her properties. Earlier, she was expelled from her party of which she was the chief. She declared herself as president of the party after the demise of Jayalalithaa in December 2016.
Palaniswami’s mentor
When there was a tussle between Palaniswami and Pannerselvam for the post of chief minister, she threw her weight behind the former and anointed him chief minister before going to jail. As it happens in politics, both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam joined hands and removed her from the top position and later expelled her from the party. After talking to the BJP leaders, the chief minister declared in January that Sasikala would not be taken back into the party. There were speculations she would fight for her place in the party.
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Jaya’s legacy should go on
Sasikala, 66, a close aide of late Jayalalithaa, spent four years in jail on corruption charges. She released a printed letter late in the evening on Wednesday in which she said, “I have never been after power or position even when Jaya (J. Jayalalithaa) was alive. Won’t do that after she is dead. (I am) quitting politics but I pray that her party wins, and her legacy goes on.
Appeals to cadre to work for success of AIADMK
“I urge supporters of AIADMK to work together and defeat the DMK. I urge the party cadre to work to keep her legacy going,” she said. The spirit of the letter is against her nature. She took to legal recourse to reclaim her position in the ruling party after coming out of the jail. She has submitted an application in Chennai court complaining against Chief Minister Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam. The courts take their own time. The elections are looming large. She must have calculated that the time at hand is not enough to reorganize herself. She would wait for another convenient day to fight.
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