Tamil Nadu Assembly elections | Sasikala floats new party on Jayalalithaa's birth anniversary

Chennai: On the birth anniversary of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, former AIADMK interim general secretary V K Sasikala on Tuesday launched a new political party without revealing its name but did not say whether her outfit would contest the April-May assembly elections.

At a rally in Pasumpon in Ramanathapuram district, Sasikala tore into AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami accusing him of troubling her at the Parappana Agrahara prison where she underwent four years imprisonment.

The venue for the rally was also significant—a village near Pasumpon, the birthplace of U Muthuramalinga Thevar, an icon of the Mukulathors, the community to which she belongs—as Sasikala flexed her political muscle after having “stepped aside” during the 2021 elections, allegedly at the behest of the BJP.

Though she attacked EPS, Sasikala expects a couple of assembly seats in the NDA for Sasikala’s supporters; failing that, the expelled AIADMK leader might field candidates in select constituencies. Though she cannot contest polls till 2027 due to her conviction in a disproportionate assets (DA) case, Sasikala believes her camp can make a difference by fielding candidates at least in constituencies where Mukulathors hold the key.

Sasikala’s nephew T T V Dhinakaran, who heads the AMMK, has re-joined the NDA and has declared his former bete noire Edappadi K Palaniswami as the Chief Ministerial nominee, while another expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam is still holding cards close to his chest.

Though Sasikala is not seen as a representative of Mukulathors, who are spread across central and southern TN, it is a fact that her association with Jayalalithaa brought the community further closer to the AIADMK.

Sasikala, who controlled the AIADMK from the sidelines for three decades as friend and advisor to Jayalalithaa, has lost her support base with no senior leader joining her camp after she was released from jail in 2021. Her efforts to rejoin the AIADMK also failed with party general secretary Palaniswami stonewalling them.