Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden bungalow to be open for public on January 28

The 'Veda Nilayam' palatial bungalow of former Chief Minister late J Jayalalithaa, one of the powerful addresses in Tamil Nadu for nearly three decades, would be thrown open for public viewing from January 28. The bungalow is being converted into a memorial house for Jayalalithaa.

The sprawling mansion in upscale Poes Garden was where Jayalalithaa resided for nearly 50 years after her mother, Sandhya, bought the bungalow in the late 1960s. A trip to Poes Garden residence was nothing short of a pilgrimage to lakhs of AIADMK cadre when Jayalalithaa, who nurtured the party founded by her mentor M G Ramachandran, was alive.

After her death in 2016, the Tamil Nadu government had in 2017 announced that the Poes Garden bungalow will be converted into a memorial for Jayalalithaa. The government's move to open the bungalow for public viewing comes even as J Deepa and J Deepak – Jayalalithaa's legal heirs – have challenged the government's move before the Madras High Court.

The inauguration of the Poes Garden memorial house will take place a day after Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami throws open a grand memorial built for Jayalalithaa at her resting place on the Marina Beach. Palaniswami, his deputy O Panneerselvam, and cabinet colleagues inspected the memorial site on Friday ahead of its opening next week.

The development comes as V K Sasikala, a close aide of Jayalalithaa who made Poes Garden residence her home, is set to walk out of a Bengaluru prison on January 27. She is currently being treated for Covid-19 at the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru.

Also read — Sasikala's health condition stable now, says hospital

The bungalow, whose value is nearly Rs 100 crore as on date, was purchased by Jayalalithaa’s mother Sandhya for a mere Rs 1.32 lakh in 1967. Sandhya bought the front portion of the mansion in the 1960s, but Jayalalithaa expanded the bungalow by acquiring near-by properties.

For Jayalalithaa, the Poes Garden residence was more than a home. A voracious reader, Jayalalithaa had set up a library that had nearly 8,000 books overlooking her bedroom on the first floor. These books will now be on display.