Senior AIADMK leader D Jayakumar on Wednesday, 16 June, hit out at VK Sasikala, confidante of late party supremo J Jayalalithaa, for attempting to create confusion in the party using "audio politics" and for trying to "divide and rule".
Stating that such ‘tactics’ would never succeed, the former minister wondered how Sasikala could stake claim to the party when she was not even a primary member.
Jayakumar was speaking to reporters against the backdrop of several audio tapes where Sasikala was heard talking over the phone with a section of AIADMK functionaries in recent times, who were subsequently expelled from the party.
Hitting out at Sasikala for attempting "divide and rule," and to "capture" the party, he said such a thing would never happen. “The cadres are vigilant and fully understand the kind of conspirators they are,” Jayakumar alleged in an apparent reference to Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran, who is the chief of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) adding, "such conspiracies will not succeed".
Meanwhile, KC Veeramani, also a former Minister, said that Sasikala was speaking to some party people merely using "black sheep" while both O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami were continuing to safeguard the party and its interests
Sasikala, in one of the latest audio clips, opposed the removal of functionaries from the party for speaking to her over the phone, and told a loyalist that she would have retained O Panneerselvam as Chief Minister in 2017 had he not rebelled against her and staged a ‘dharma yudham’.
In March, ahead of the Assembly polls, Sasikala had said that “she will stay away from politics,” but would pray for Jayalalithaa’s “golden rule”.
She became AIADMK interim general secretary following Jayalalithaa's demise in 2016 and this appointment was rescinded at a general council meet in 2017 and it also announced invalidation of all the appointments made by Dhinakaran. This meet also created new posts of coordinator and co-coordinator for OPS and EPS respectively, giving them all powers and the factions led by the duo had come together by then, while Sasikala and her followers were dislodged.
Since then, the AIADMK had made it clear that there was no scope for rapprochement with Sasikala or her relatives. Eventually, Dhinakaran floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam in 2018 and has said often that retrieval of the AIADMK was his outfit's goal.
(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission.)
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