Revival effort

Revival effort

Sasikala’s attempt to make herself politically relevant again still lacks teeth.

It is the golden jubilee year of the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, but the celebrations are muted. It lacks a unifying leader. It lost power to rival DMK. Its workers have been caught in factional fights ever since Jayalalithaa died. Can such a party dare think of a revival? A close aide of the late Puratchi Thalaivi, VK Sasikala, thinks so. She wants to revive, if not the party, at least her chances of becoming the leader. Coming out of prison after serving a four-year term in a corruption case, she used the occasion of the 50th year of the founding of the party to make herself politically relevant once again. Her political errands were low-key but not publicity-shy. She visited party mausoleums and museums in Chennai to pay her obeisance to MGR and Jayalalithaa. She talked to party workers about bringing back Jayalithaa’s legacy; it was not yet the time to address the people. She proposes to tour the State, to assess the mood of the workers. Sasikala’s opening gambit is now complete. It is for the party’s dual leadership — Edappadi K Palaniswami and Ottakarathevar Panneerselvam — to respond. The former has taken credit for the AIADMK avoiding a rout in the assembly elections and surprisingly getting 77 seats. He thinks that makes him a better leader than OPS. The latter is more susceptible to Sasikala’s influence because they share the same caste. It is not a difficult task for her to break the dual leadership but she would not want the party to break. That would not serve her purpose. She wants to see how the 2017 heist-cum-murder incident in Jayalalithaa’s Kodanad estate affects the OPS-EPS duo. EPS, the then Chief Minister, did not order a special probe. The DMK Government now has. All this has left the party workers a confused lot. They do not know who among the three leaders has the staying power. They want to see if Sasikala has the advantage of a sympathy factor because of her association with ‘Amma’. They will wait to check if the Kodanad probe troubles EPS and OPS. That is why none of the leaders is in a hurry to make a move.

The person who can keep the AIADMK united and maintain the State’s bipolar politics has a chance of succeeding Jayalalithaa. Not even the DMK wants a challenger in the state other than the AIADMK. MK Stalin has gone on record saying that. The Congress knows its place already. The BJP, however, is intent on joining the party. It had originally bet on the AIADMK’s decimation in the elections, hoping to find a factional partner if the party broke up. That did not happen as OPS-EPS had a bigger objective: grabbing party reins. However, Sasikala recused herself from the elections as questions were raised about an invisible hand influencing her decision. Can she summon the courage to keep the national parties at bay like Jayalalithaa?