Friends, foes were milestones on her political journey

When AIADMK founder and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran died in 1987, there were quite a few senior leaders in the party who could have taken over the mantle.

But in the end, the person who emerged triumphant was J Jayalalithaa, a political lightweight in relative terms, whom MGR was believed to be grooming for the office.

As MGR’s body lay in state, a white-sari-clad Jayalalithaa had positioned herself close to his body, leaving none in doubt that she considered herself the legatee of the mega-star with whom she had paired in numerous films. It was MGR who pitch-forked her into politics, by making her, first, the party’s Propaganda Secretary and then nominating her to the Rajya Sabha.

The AIADMK went through a bitter split, with MGR’s widow Janaki heading one faction; Janaki Ramachandran was even Chief Minister for a brief while before her government fell. Jayalalithaa headed the other faction, which included some of the younger ministers in MGR’s Cabinet.

The DMK came to power in 1989, riding on the split in the AIADMK vote and the fact that the Congress (I), which had always fought the elections in alliance with either one of the Dravidian parties, was contesting alone. The Karunanidhi government did not last its full term: it was dismissed by the Chandra Shekhar government at the Centre on the grounds that law and order had failed in the State.

By then, Jayalalithaa had unified the AIADMK, made peace with Janaki Ramachandran and all the senior leaders, who were once bitterly opposed to her even when MGR was alive; they had come to terms with reality and accepted Jayalalithaa as the party’s supreme leader. She swept to power in the elections in 1991, after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The rest ought to have been history. But it was not so. Very soon, Jayalalithaa fell out with the Congress (I), and her government was besieged by charges of corruption. Jayalalithaa’s close aide and confidante Sasikala – whom Jayalalithaa described as her “surrogate sister” – was said to be wielding enormous influence, and acting as an extra-constitutional authority. The lavish wedding of her foster son and Sasikala’s nephew, Sudhakaran, in September 1995, was the last straw. By then, Jayalalithaa was completely on the back foot, and only a miracle could have saved her in the elections in 1996.

But miracles failed to manifest themselves, and she ended up losing power and even her own seat. The DMK government, which campaigned on the promise that it would take action against Jayalalithaa’s corrupt deeds, went after her systematically. Several cases were filed, but only one remained – now known as the disproportionate assets case – to haunt her.

When Jayalalithaa returned to power in 2001, the DMK moved the High Court asking for the case to be shifted outside the State in the interest of a fair trial. The case was shifted to Karnataka. A special judge convicted her, and she had to step down as Chief Minister. On appeal, a single judge in the Karnataka High Court overturned her conviction, following which she returned as Chief Minister.

Jayalalithaa had the ability to make friends easily, but could just as easily turn them into her adversaries. In the party, she brooked no dissent: there was none to question why she dropped or picked somebody either as a Minister or to a party post.

She reduced her partymen to sycophants, with all of them, including Ministers, routinely prostrating at her feet. Seasoned political observers say this never happened even when MGR reigned supreme.

Many, including senior bureaucrats who have interacted with Jayalalithaa, vouched for her ability to grasp issues and take decisions quickly and boldly. Some of them, who had been at the receiving end, used to say that she was not your average politician. But then it was alleged that most decisions, including the appointment of Ministers, and IAS and IPS officers, were made at the behest of Sasikala and her husband M Natarajan, a former State government public relations officer, who remained behind the scenes. While Sasikala resided with Jayalalithaa in her Poes Garden residence, Natarajan lived elsewhere in Chennai.

Jayalalithaa may have even harboured national ambitions, especially in the era of coalitions, when regional parties were crucial to government formation.

The AIADMK was part of the Vajyapee-led NDA government that lasted 13 months during 1998-99, `but withdrew support on the grounds that the Centre was betraying Tamil Nadu’s interests and that she wanted to see a truly secular government that had national security interests at heart.

The famous tea party between her and Sonia Gandhi in the Capital, organised by her one-time bête noire Subramanian Swamy, gave enough hints of what she planned to do.

Her calculation was that if she managed to win enough seats in the State and become the largest single regional party, she would be well-placed to bargain for the top post if there was a fractured mandate. The NDA government lost a vote of confidence by one vote, forcing fresh elections; the NDA roped in AIADMK’s sworn enemy, the DMK, into the alliance and came back to power.

In politics, of course, there are no permanent friends or enemies. Jayalalithaa established the truth of this when, as Chief Minister, she lashed out at and launched a personal tirade against Congress (I) president Sonia Gandhi at press conferences in 2002 in New Delhi and in Chennai, stating that she could never support a person of foreign origin to the top post. Curiously, the AIADMK Parliamentary Party had, when it withdrew support to the Vajpayee government in April 1999, passed a resolution offering its full support to a government led by Sonia Gandhi.

Jayalalithaa had a special rapport with Narendra Modi, from a time even before he became Prime Minister. As Gujarat Chief Minister, Modi participated in the swearing-in of Jayalalithaa and her Cabinet in May 2011, a gesture she reciprocated when Modi was re-elected Chief Minister in December 2012. She even deputed two of her party leaders in solidarity when Chief Minister Modi observed a fast for communal harmony, peace and unity. In August 2015, after participating in a function in Chennai, Prime Minister Modi had lunch with Jayalalithaa at her house.

Now, as her body lies in state, one wonders who will take over the mantle from her. Will it again be O Panneerselvam, who stood in for her when she had to step down as Chief Minister?

Even Panneerselvam knew he was only a stopgap arrangement, having been rewarded witht he post for his consummate loyalty: he was considered a Sasikala nominee since he belonged to the same Thevar community as her, and his biggest qualification was that he was singularly lacking in ambition.

Or will Sasikala continue to pull the strings of power from behind the scenes?

COMMENT NOW