Sasikala to be next Tamil Nadu CM as Panneerselvam resigns

V K Sasikala, aide and head of late J Jayalalithaa’s domestic arrangements for about three decades, will be the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

She’d smoothly taken over as head of the ruling AIADMK after Jayalalithaa’s death in December, without any dissent. The entire senior leadership said they saw her as the late supremo’s successor – she was formally elected party head on December 30.

However, O Panneerselvam, who’d twice at Jayalalithaa’s behest briefly substituted for her as head of government (never as party head) when legal circumstances compelled this, had formally taken over as CM as soon as she’d died on December 5. On Sunday, he announced at a meeting convened of party MLAs that he was stepping down, to enable her to fill those shoes, too. The MLAs, without dissent, elected her as their head.

She will now meet governor Vidyasagar Rao to stake her claim to form the government. Sasikala is not a member of the legislature, something the country’s Constitution requires her to remedy within six months.

I’ve taken charge, first as party head and now as CM at Pannerselvam’s own urging, Sasikala told the MLAs; “he insisted”, was the way she was reported to have put it. She added the ritual words about her government always working for the people’s welfare, following the principles of Jayalalithaa.

The sequence of events was not quite clear but ahead of the MLAs' meeting, it appears Panneerselvam and other seniors met Sasikala at Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence, where her family and she continue to reside.

Also, it appears, the arrangement by which Jayalalithaa's official aide and former state chief secretary, Sheela Balakrishnan, styled adviser to her and continuing in this role through her long hospitalisation and after Panneerselvam took over, was terminated on Friday. Also removed with other officials attached to the CM’s office, such as K N Venkataraman and A Ramalingam, an arrangement begun by Jayalaltihaa.

Earlier during the day, the CM had gone to north Chennai to take stock on cleansing work in the coastal area – two ships had collided at the Ennore port some days earlier, spilling tonnes of oil in the sea. He’s been seen doing works of this nature since he succeeded Jayalalithaa on this third occasion and started getting seen as a ‘good and active CM’, as also for the way he had conducted himself during the recent jallikattu controversy, when the public mood had got inflamed.

There was also a perception that the central government wanted him to continue as CM. He was among the few CMs who’d got more than one meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the short time span after his swearing-in.

Some party seniors, including Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, had been saying Sasikala must also take over leadership of the government, along with that of the party.

What her hold is at the grassroots level of the party and in politics remains to be seen. As for opposition parties, their attitude seems clearer. M K Stalin, working president of her arch rival, the DMK, told news agency PTI that the people of Tamil Nadu did not vote for anyone from Jayalalithaa's household to become CM. His party was watching the situation, he said.