Explained: Why Jaya expelled Sasikala’s ‘Mannarkudi Mafia’

 

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who is also the general secretary, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, expelled her close aide Sasikala, her husband Natarajan and 12 of their close relatives from the party’s primary membership on Monday.

An AIADMK  release issued by Jayalalithaa said Sasikala, her husband Natarajan, relatives Ravanan, M Ramachandran, Kulothungan, Divakaran, Dinakaran, Bhaskaran, Sudhakaran, S Venkatesh, Adyar Mohan, Mahadevan and Thankamani have been expelled from the party.

While Sasikala was a member of the AIADMK executive committee, others do not have any party or official positions. Sasikala and her associates are known in Tamil Nadu as the ‘Mannargudi Mafia’. Mannargudi in Tanjavur district is Sasikala’s village. She belongs to the Thevar community.

Jayalalithaa has asked her party cadre not to have any dealings with the expelled members. Though no reasons have been given for the ouster, political observers and intelligence officials are of the view that the action was a result of unprecedented interference in government and party affairs by Sasikala and her relations.

For many days, Chennai has been agog with rumours of an impending ‘palace coup’ to be staged from the Poes Garden residence of the chief minister.

“There were reports that Sasikala and her relations were planning to oust Jayalalithaa and appoint her husband Natarajan as the chief minister,” said a senior intelligence official.

There were charges that transfer and postings of IAS and IPS officers were carried out at the behest of Sasikala and her relatives.

The expulsion of Sasikala took all by surprise because she was seen as Jayalalithaa’s conscience keeper. It was impossible to see Jayalalithaa in public without Sasikala. Interestingly, both were co-accused in corruption cases like the disproportionate asset case and the TANSI land case. The build-up to the expulsion of Sasikala and her relations began with the visit of a long time political advisor of Jayalalithaa to Poes Garden last week who sounded her about the ground realities happening right under her nose.

Though Sasikala has been staying with Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence, since the last few weeks she had shifted her place of residence to a villa on the East Coast Road owned by her nephew Bhaskaran. 

A veteran political commentator said that Jayalalithaa would be facing serious political crisis in days to come since a majority of the AIADMK MLAs have been handpicked by the Sasikala-Natarajan duo. “They will dance to the tunes of the husband-wife team and the chief minister is in for major trouble,’ he said.

But Rama Ramanathan, a senior AIADMK functionary, said there was nothing surprising in the expulsion of Sasikala and others from the party.

“Amma is the supreme authority in the AIADMK and the entire cadre stand by her because we know that whatever she does is for the good of the party as well as Tamil Nadu,” Ramanathan.

Peer Mohammed, a senior scribe who covers the AIADMK, says the removal of Sasikala and company will not have any impact either in the party or in the governance.

“The AIADMK general council is scheduled for December 30 and we will see the full endorsement of Amma’s actions,” said Mohammed.