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Power play in Tamil Nadu: Jayalalithaa expels aide Sasikala & clan
Tribune News Service

What went wrong n The grapevine has it that Sasikala’s husband M Natarajan had begun devising strategies to have his man in the hot seat, should Jayalalithaa be convicted n A senior journalist close to the Jayalalithaa “tipped” her off about the plan prompting her to act n Only last week, Jayalalithaa had sacked Panneerselvam, a Natarajan man, who was the OSD in her office

Chennai, December 19
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa today expelled trusted powerful aide Sasikala Natarajan, her husband M Natarajan and 12 members of their extended family from the party.

Jayalalithaa is often known to deliver surprise ‘knock out’ punches that would make the world turn to her. Pulling the rug from under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s feet defeating his government by a single vote in 1999 and jailing her religious guru Kanchi Sankaracharya in a murder case are testimony of her unpredictable mind.

Yet, her brief announcement on Monday afternoon virtually disowning Sasikala Natarajan, her closest aide of over 25 years, has taken the political world by storm. She expelled Sasikala and Co -- dubbed by critics as the ‘Mannargudi Mafia’ (as the family hails from Mannargudi in central Tamil Nadu) -- from the primary membership of the AIADMK. Jayalalithaa also instructed her party cadre not to have any truck with the expelled members.

Fissures in first families are not unusual in Indian politics where dynastic rule has been inspired by the Nehru-Gandhian era. Feuds in the families of Bal Thackeray in Maharashtra, M Karunanidhi in Tamil Nadu and Karunakaran in Kerala are well documented.

Jayalalithaa, a spinster, has no family. But her unusually strong bonding with and dependence on Sasikala, wife of a former Tamil Nadu Government Public Relations Officer M Natarajan, inadvertently led her to play messiah to the latter’s family.

Sasikala had first come into contact with Jayalalithaa in the early 1980s supplying videocassettes of new films at her doorsteps. Jayalalithaa is known to rarely trust anyone, but quite mysteriously Sasikala managed to win her confidence and became her personal aide.

The two travelled together surviving a highway car-lorry accident in the late eighties. Over time their relationship evolved into a strong inseparable friendship and Sasikala moved into the AIADMK leader’s posh Poes Garden residence in the heart of Chennai. Jayalalithaa had once famously declared that Sasikala was her “surrogate sister.” A recent Wikileaks expose showed that even a US diplomat in Chennai had found it worthy of commenting on their relationship in a cable.

What made the outside world sit up and take notice of this unique relationship was the fact that from being a personal aide, Sasikala — under guidance from her politically manipulative husband — chose to silently encroach upon Jayalalithaa’s political space as well. Curiously, Natarajan has rarely been seen inside Poes Garden. He has largely operated from outside.

For reasons unexplained, Jayalalithaa, hailed by many as the Iron Lady of Tamil Nadu politics, easily succumbed to Sasikala’s political indulgence. Simultaneously, Sasikala’s relatives began entering Poes Garden and the family started spreading its tentacles, dabbling in backroom politics and administration.

That the Mannargudi family hailed from the backward Thevar caste, a dominant AIADMK vote bank community in the southern districts, also helped. During her first tenure as Chief Minister between 1991 and 1996, many suspect Jayalalithaa allowed herself to come under the control of the Sasikala family.

As the Mannargudi family emerged as a parallel power centre, businessmen, wheeler-dealers, bureaucrats, police officers, aspiring party ticket seekers and ministerial-aspirants began opening channels of communication with them to win Jayalalithaa’s favour.

Honest bureaucrats did not muster courage to tell Jayalalithaa about what was happening behind her. Jayalalithaa herself was to blame for this to some extent, as she did not take criticism constructively.

In the 1990s, Jayalalithaa did the unthinkable by asking the Deputy Speaker to vacate his chair for Sasikala, a non-entity in the House, so that she could sit and watch the proceedings of a special session of the Legislative Assembly.

Such was the Mannargudi family’s spell that Jayalalithaa adopted Sasikala’s nephew VN Sudhagaran. He too was expelled today. In 1995, she conducted Sudhagaran’s wedding with the granddaughter of Tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan with such grandeur and ostentation that it came to be dubbed as the ‘Mother of All Marriages’. It was widely rumoured that around Rs 100 crore was spent on the ceremonies.

A diamond-studded gold belt, diamond-studded shoes worn by Sudhagaran and finest ornaments worn by Jayalalithaa and Sasikala on the occasion are all now part of material evidence presented against them in the disproportionate assets case in the Bangalore special court.

A year later in the 1996 Assembly elections, the AIADMK suffered its worst defeat with Jayalalithaa herself losing in Bargur by over 8,000 votes. Within no time party second line leaders and cadres began blaming Jayalalithaa’s association with the Sasikala family as the primary reason for the defeat. Soon, Jayalalithaa and Sasikala went to jail on corruption charges.

Initially, Jayalalithaa strongly stood by Sasikala describing her as a “surrogate sister”. Later, she gave in to pressure and dissociated herself with the family. She also disowned her foster son.

Party cadres were jubilant but the Mannargudi family quietly made a comeback into the Poes Garden in the late nineties. This time the rapport between Jayalalithaa and Sasikala grew stronger and she sprung a surprise by nominating the latter to the AIADMK’s high-level executive committee.

The Mannargudi family began taking control of the party and Jaya TV from where they had left and positioned themselves well with an iron grip. Another nephew of Sasikala, TTV Dinakaran (also expelled) was made a MP. His wife Anuradha took command of Jaya TV.

During the AIADMK regime of 2001-2006, it was alleged that most government contracts went to businessmen close to the family. Again in the run-up to the May 2011 Assembly polls, the Sasikala clan decided who got the party ticket and seat-sharing.

What made Jayalalithaa sever ties with a woman who has been omnipresent in her life for a quarter of a century is that the Mannargudi family has become too ambitious.

The family allegedly planted its men in key positions in the government so much so that it was suspected that they wanted to keep a watch on Jayalalithaa’s each administrative move.