This story has moved so fast that it is already dated! We write fully knowing that you are weary of the soap opera, but we must record it for posterity. Remember, you haven’t seen something like this before, and you may not see one again.
J Jayalalithaa, the strong woman, dies in harness. O Paneerselvam, the eternal loyalist, revolts. V K Sasikala, the chief minister’s soul mate, is jailed. And hey-who-is-he E Palaniswami is the new chief minister. You would rip a scriptwriter if he came with this joke of a storyline. Even in Tollywood, forget Bollywood, there would be no takers for the proposal. But the reality is stranger than fiction. Read on.
7 Feb 2017 21:05 hours.
Jayalalithaa Samadhi,
Marina, Chennai 600 005
O Paneerselvam (aka OPS), the yes-man with a 40-year stint in the party, sat in yogic pose – eyes closed and legs crossed – for 40 minutes. Television cameras hungrily captured the moment. At 21:45 hours he came out of his trance and informed the waiting journalists of his conversation with the soul of Jayalalithaa. No one in India had seen or heard anything of this sort before.
Yes, OPS had raised the banner of revolt. He informed the world he was coerced into signing his resignation letter to the Governor and had been pushed to propose Sasikala for the position of chief minister. He spoke of his humiliation at the hands of the very people who wanted him to become chief minister. He told them he had now unburdened his heart to Jaya and was ready to redeem his honour. It was stirring oratory: a Mark Antony on the Marina.
To understand OPS’s rise from a man who carried servility on his sleeves to a man with balls, we must appreciate the shifting ramshackle of time.
22 Sep 2016
36 Poes Garden, Chennai 600 086
On that fateful evening, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospitals, complaining of fever. The administration said she would be there for some time, making people wonder if a minor illness called for a major stay. In the end, she was hospitalised for 75 days, never to return home alive. No one, save V K Sasikala, was allowed to see her. No one, including the president and the prime minister, was kept in the loop. TV channels in these days of 24/7 had no access. Finally, Jayalalithaa caved in the same manner as she lived: in mystery and intrigue. While the formal announcement was Caught diabetes, Bowled cardiac arrest, informally stories of palace intrigue abound. And of crazy theories that should not warrant a second look. Moments before doctors pulled the plug, members of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elected OPS. Three things favoured the reluctant leader. One, twice before Jayalalithaa herself had nominated him to that position. Two, he belonged to the same community as Sasikala, the former woman-Friday who was rapidly emerging as a power centre. And three, everyone believed he wouldn’t rock the boat. The Governor lost no time in swearing OPS in the wee hours of 6 Dec.
6 Dec 2016 to 5 Feb 2017
Fort St. George
Chennai 600 009
On the night of 5
December, the unthinkable happened. J Jayalalithaa died in harness. The swift transfer of power was a sign of commendable maturity in a period of grave crisis. It drew parallel to the speed with which the Congress got Rajiv sworn in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. The following day thousands congregated first at Rajaji Hall and later at the Marina to give a tearful farewell to their departed leader, the one they called Amma. If you needed an index of her popularity, it was the surging crowd that thronged her funeral.
When it rains, it pours. While the state had still not recovered from the bereavement, Cyclone Vardah came calling. It was as though nature was mourning the loss of its favourite child. OPS braved the weather to go on a blistering overseeing tour that captured public imagination and endeared him to the masses. It was the very people who once reviled him for his sycophancy.
OPS 1: VKS 0
As later day events showed, that score marked the beginning of his fall from grace.
Soon Tamil Nadu had a water problem. OPS personally flew to Andhra Pradesh to hold parley with the man who held the key to the solution, N Chandrababu Naidu. The two struck an instant chemistry and water flowed to the state. It was something even Jayalalithaa could not have managed.
OPS 2: VKS 0
OPS’s graph was beginning to rise. At Poes Garden, Sasikala was starting to watch this with anxiety.
But it was his handling of Jallikattu that took Pannerselvam’s popularity to the stratosphere. During Tamil Nadu’s Tahrir Square moment, when a sea of humanity rose in protest against the banning of the bullfight and occupied the Marina, OPS met Narendra Modi in Delhi. The prime minister put the chief minister on to legal luminaries who suggested an Ordinance. OPS carried out the task at breakneck speed, including getting the Ordinance passed. Jallikattu was back and OPS was the middle class’s newest darling. Again, he had done what his erstwhile boss J Jayalalithaa could not.
OPS 3: VKS 0
At Veda Nilayam, 36 Poes Garden, Sasikala’s advisors huddled into a meeting.
OPS was turning dangerously successful. Worse still, he was crediting himself and not Sasikala for managing Vardah and cracking Jallikattu. If not reined he might become a dominant force. It was time to strike back. And that is what Krishnaveni Sasiskala did on 5 of February. She decided to come out of Jayalalithaa’s shadow.
One may never get to know the reasons for shunting OPS, but one can guess the causes. It may be irrelevant now.
The bottom line: OPS resigned and worse still proposed the former Jaya-shadow as CM. Sasikala had now metamorphosed into Chinnamma. The servility of the legislators was stunning. It indicated where the fountainhead of power lay. She had the letter of support signed by a brute majority of her MLAs. She faxed it to the Governor and fixed a date, 6 February as for swearing in.
A day later, OPS had his Mark Antony moment.
8 Feb 2017 to 18 Feb 2017
Golden Bay Resort, East Coast Road
Kuvathur, Chennai 603305
The year 2017 is the 50th anniversary of the Kazhagam’s capture of power in Tamil Nadu. Ever since the state has had only five chief ministers, OPS included, and never seen political instability.
In its 45 years of existence, the AIADMK had only two bosses. First matinee idol and founder, M G Ramachandran and later his leading lady: a feisty woman called Jayalalithaa Jayaram. Now Sasikala Natarajan, (aka Chinnamma), was moving for the kill. She had placed her men in strategic positions in the organisation as also in government. On New Year Eve, Chinnamma took the first step towards fulfilling her vaulting ambition of becoming chief minister. On 31 Dec, Chinnamma who has never held a public office was anointed General Secretary -– a position that formally made her the most influential person in the party.
Forty days later, on Sunday,5 Feb, Sasikala came within striking distance of becoming chief minister. With the AIADMK legislative party choosing her as the leader, she informed the governor of her desire to be sworn in the following day. The speed at which she moved worried the people of the state. The party made all arrangements for the swearing-in function, but Governor Vidyasagar Rao wasn’t ready to play best man.
Rao felt slighted at not having been kept in the loop. Like a schoolboy who bunks school because he hasn’t done his homework, Rao went missing from the centre of gravity, Chennai. From Mumbai, he flew to Delhi ostensibly consulting legal luminaries but actually talking to the Home Department about the next steps. Later he headed back to the country’s commercial capital and his current home, Mumbai, cancelling all his engagements in Tamil Nadu. Apparently, he had gone out-of-reach, buying time, at the instance of his political mentors, the BJP.
The following day, 6 Feb, the Supreme Court on a petition by Dushyant Dave told the Karnataka government to wait for a week for their verdict on the pleas challenging the acquittal of Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case also involving Sasikala.
So the claim that Rao was initially waiting for the court’s nod is bull.
On Tuesday, 7 Feb, after his revolt, OPS wanted to take his resignation back. But Rao was busy elsewhere attending to what he felt was far more important work. People were asking questions. Did he meet OPS while accepting his resignation? Did he ascertain from him the reasons for his departure? Did he accept it with graceless speed? In the event, why did he bide his time when it came to Sasikala? If he was doubtful about the validity of the signatures why did he not call for an affidavit?
It was that night that OPS revolted. Rattled by his Mark Antony moment and worried that MLAs might cross over, Sasikala Natarajan bundled her supporters into a bus. They were driven to the Golden Bay Resort, 80kms off Chennai on the East Coast Road. There they were holed for almost ten days and treated like royalty until the trust vote happened. Chinnamma wasn’t doing anything unique. Every political party, the BJP, the Congress, the TDP, had played this whisking game in the past.
The support and the judgment
OPS’s first support came from the renowned oncologist turned Rajya Sabha MP, Dr V Maitreyan.
A good 72 hours later, former chairman of the hiring company, Mafoi, K Pandiarajan jumped ship. OPS had stuck his first big fish. Soon the presidium chairman and party founder
E Madhusudhan crossed over. Earlier another founder and former speaker P H Pandian sided OPS. Slowly, the trickle threatened to take the contours of a tornado.
Dr. R Natraj, former top cop, (he was Director General of Police) and now Mylapore MLA, did a few somersaults. Initially, he said he was on neither side, then Natraj moved to the OPS camp and later at a meeting where I was a co-speaker, remarked he would support any government because his only interest lies in serving people.
On Valentine’s Day, came the denouement.
The Karnataka High Court in a perverse judgment littered with maths errors had set aside a trial court judgment of John D’Cunha. Now on 14 February a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Pinaki Ghose and Justice Amitav Roy dealt a death knell to Sasikala’s ambitions. They found her guilty as charged. In more than one sense it was also an indictment of J Jayalalithaa.
If you thought this would open the floodgates for OPS, you were wrong. If you thought Sasikala would throw in the towel you were wrong. She quickly nominated Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS), as chief minister. Winner of four assembly elections EPS reportedly has tremendous clout. Sasikala also made her nephew TTV Dinakaran Deputy General Secretary of the party and also roped in the exiled Dr Venkatesh.
This time the Governor acquiesced, swore in EPS and asked him to prove his majority on the floor of the house.
There had earlier been talks about how the Governor would play a fair game. About how he would not give OPS the first shot for a trial of strength because it could encourage horse-trading. Of how he would not invite Sasikala or later Palaniswami as that would be unfair to OPS. And of how he would, therefore, call for a composite floor test with a secret ballot. In the end, the composite test did not happen, and OPS was left licking his wounds.
On 16 February, the Governor administered the oath of office and secrecy to Palaniswami. Dr. R Natraj was at the swearing-in function. On 18 February, EPS called for the trust vote. Following acrimonious scenes, removals and walkouts, EPS won. Sasikala had the last laugh. R Natraj did not vote with the government!
OPS had begun to work on friendly terms with the Centre. With EPS now being a Sasikala nominee and given the heavy belief that Governor Rao took his instructions from the Centre, will EPS stand up to them at the smallest provocation? Or will he quickly come out of Sasikala’s shadow to be seen as his own man? Or will he carry Sasikala’s biddings through her nephew TTV Dinakaran and Dr. Venkatesh?
These were the very men that Jayalalithaa had thrown out of the AIADMK. They are now back and they are back with a vengeance.
– Data inputs from Nitya Balaji
Pandemonium paralyses Assembly
It was another black day at the TN Assembly. The AIADMK headed by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami convened a one-day special session seeking a vote of confidence. The DMK, the OPS faction and the Congress, which together had 107 members, demanded a week so that the MLAs could visit their constituencies to assess the mood of the people. When there was resistance to this, the demand shifted to a secret ballot. It is naiveté to expect the ruling party concede these requests. The mature politicians in opposition should have anticipated the ruling party not acceding it. They should have allowed the vote of confidence to proceed as per the Speaker’s dictat and worked towards getting the few additional MLAs to support their motion later. After all, the budget will have to be passed in March and a defeat of the finance bill would have brought down the government. With the ground swell of public opinion in favour of OPS this appeared possible. All that needed was another five votes! Sadly DMK squandered the goodwill it had earned by its earlier civil approach. The assembly witnessed unruly behaviours on the part of DMK. Their MLAs indulged in violence, shouting against the government, manhandling the Speaker, pulling out the microphone, tearing reports, tossing furniture and even occupying the Speaker’s chair. The AIADMK maintained stoic peace with all its members stuck to their seats and not even raising their voice. Little wonder the Speaker had no choice but to suspend the unruly members. The marshals were summoned to physically lift and take the DMK MLAs out of the assembly. Sadly, one witnessed the leader of the opposition, M K Stalin, beating the marshals, reminiscent of what his father M Karunanidhi did when he was arrested in 2001. In the end, the assembly passed the trust motion with 122 in favour and 11 against. – S Viswanathan
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