COURTESY HT FEB 10

Sasikala’s return to TN ruffles feathers

The return of expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary VK Sasikala, who was released from a Bengaluru prison last month after serving a four-year jail sentence in a disproportionate assets case, to Chennai on Tuesday appears to have infused a sense of unease in Tamil Nadu’s ruling party. Party leaders have insisted on retaining a dual leadership (of chief minister E Palaniswami and his deputy O Paneerselvam), but there is a section, comprising the state’s southern block and the Thevar community that Sasikala belongs to, which believes the AIADMK would lose out on those votes if she is kept out. Another narrative building in the AIADMK is that public sentiment is against Sasikala. “We had celebrated you as Chinamma after Amma (J Jayalalithaa), but the people didn’t accept you,” AIADMK spokesperson Vaigaichelvan said at a rally on Tuesday. htc