CHENNAI: V.K. Sasikala, the former state general secretary of AIADMK and once closest aide of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, who had earlier decided to stay away from politics, in a dramatic statement said she may stage a comeback if the ruling party in the state bites the dust.
Sasikala of the infamous "Mannargudi family" was released from January 27, after serving jail term for four years.
She had come back to Chennai staging a grandiose road show with a cavalcade of vehicles from Bengaluru clearly announcing her political reentry.
She was expelled from the AIADMK, and later her nephew TTV Dhinakaran had floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Katchi (AMMK) following pitch battle with the AIADMK over party sybol.
Sasikala may be planning to stage a comeback either by capturing AIADMK or aligning AMMK with AIADMK.
However, her protegees Chief Minister K. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam were adamant not to have her back in party fold.
RSS ideologue and one of the key players of the saffron camp in Chennai, S. Gurumurthy had held several rounds of meetings with both the Chief Minister and Deputy CM for her reentry in to the AIADMK or for an alliance with AMMK but both the leaders have stuck to their position.
This has left the saffron camp flustered since if Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran moves ahead with their party AMMK contesting assembly polls, it would create a dent in the the vote bank of Deputy Chief Minister O. Pannerselvam thus damaging the prospects of AIADMK in a neck and neck race.
It was learned that BJP national leadership had used arm-twisting-tactics against VK Sasikala and forced her to quit from politics.
Nephew of Sasikala's late husband Natarajan, A. Raja while speaking to IANS over telephone said: "Sasikala Chinnamma is waiting for her opportune time. The family will keep quiet, and the AIADMK will fall on its own weight and arrogance and then no one can force her to stay away.
"AIADMK and people of Tamil Nadu need the statue of a person like her to pull the party ahead and lets wait and watch".
The Sasikala family is expecting that the AIADMK will loose the elections by a big margin and then she could reenter politics and capture the party. In such a situation the BJP and the Union government may not have much opposition.
BJP sources also opined that Sasikala will not keep away from politics and that she is keeping a studied silence over her next move.