Cakewalk to the throne, thorny path thereon

The last 15 months have been tumultuous for Tamil Nadu in more ways than one. Starting with the floods in December 2015, there have been several major upheavals.

The death of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in December 2016 followed by Cyclone Vardah and then the more recent protests over banning of jallikattu and the violence that rocked Chennai are all events still fresh in everyone’s memory.

Sunday’s developments, where Jayalalithaa’s surrogate sister, aide and close friend Sasikala deftly manoeuvred to get herself elected as the AIADMK’s legislature party leader and the incumbent Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who took charge for the third time in the wee hours of December 6 even as Jayalalithaa’s body was yet to removed from the hospital where she had undergone treatment for 75 days, submitting his resignation to acting Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao citing personal reasons, lead to more uncertainty for people of the State.

Chorus of MLAs

Senior party leaders had orchestrated a campaign to get Sasikala get elected as the AIADMK’s general secretary and those very same leaders, as also a number of ministers, led the chorus for her to take over as the Chief Minister. In the meantime, Sasikala had got herself to be described as ‘ chinnamma’ — loosely translated as the younger mother; Jayalalithaa was referred to as amma.

The party’s television channel Jaya TV, owned by Sasikala’s extended family members, refer to her as only chinnamma .

Will she? Won’t she? What will she do? These were the questions uppermost in the minds of most people in Tamil Nadu ever since Sasikala took over as the party’s general secretary in December-end, on whether she would be content with leading the party or would want to become chief minister.

There were many who felt — or rather hoped — that she would stop with leading the party, to which post she got elected unopposed through some deft backroom manoeuvring.

But, once having got hold of the party chief’s post, it was just a matter of time before Sasikala made a bid for the Chief Minister’s post. There was also one line of argument that Sasikala would not risk contesting an election at this juncture, what with people’s anger over the State’s handling of the jallikattu issue yet to subside fully.

It is not lost on anybody that this development happened exactly two months to the day after Jayalalithaa’s death. As expected, there have been voices against Sasikala taking over as CM, but there is precious little that the Governor can do but swear her and her cabinet in.

After all, she has got unanimously elected as leader of the legislature party.

Social media has been flooded with posts and comments about the developments, many of them expressing anger, anguish and revulsion at the sudden turn of political events.

Loud murmurs Political party leaders, including MK Stalin, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and working president of the DMK, have slammed the move as one going against the wishes of the people and Jayalalithaa herself.

Even as Sasikala prepares to assume office, the Supreme Court verdict on a disproportionate assets case against her — Jayalalithaa was the first accused — is expected next week. The immediate challenge for Sasikala is to find a safe seat and get elected to the Assembly within six months.

The way things are shaping up, it does not appear to be smooth sailing for Sasikala.

Panneerselvam’s ascent As Chief Minister, Panneerselvam, according to people in the know, had started asserting himself, and was seen to be proactive in dealing with issues, be it gearing up the official machinery during Cyclone Vardah that struck Chennai in December or, more recently, during the oil spill off Chennai coast caused by a collision between two ships.

He was also keen to portray himself as a man in charge. In the end he was done in by his own cabinet colleagues, many of whom openly canvassed for Sasikala to take over as CM.

It looks like the State will have to put up with uncertainties for a while longer. In all this din, Jayalalithaa seems to have faded away quickly from people’s memory.

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