VK Sasikala, the close aide of late Tamil Nadu chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader J Jayalalithaa, announced her return to politics on Sunday, June 16. Announcing her re-entry, Sasikala also stated that she would revive the AIADMK, which lost all the 32 constituencies it contested from in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
India Today reported her as saying, “It's not over for AIADMK as my entry has begun.” Pledging to revive the party and form the government in the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, Sasikala said that she will materialise Amma’s (Jayalalitha) vision through her comeback.
Sasikala, who formerly served as the AIADMK general secretary, was an influential figure in the party. In the power tussle within the AIADMK following the death of Jayalalithaa, Sasikala was expelled from the party in 2017, along with her nephew TTV Dhinakaran. The party cadres then split into factions under Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Paneerselvam (OPS), but the latter too was expelled later in 2022.
Read: The rise and fall of VK Sasikala
Sasikala and her sister-in-law J Ilavarasi had spent four years in jail after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case in which the prime accused was Jayalalithaa. The case against the latter was abated due to her demise.
The 2024 Lok Sabha polls were the first for the AIADMK after cutting ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It was in September 2023 that AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palanisamy announced the party’s exit from the NDA after arguments escalated between the party’s cadres and the Tamil Nadu BJP President, K Annamalai.
Two days after the results of the 2024 general elections were declared, Sasikala, along with O Paneerselvam, wrote to the party cadres and asked them that there is a need to keep the ideals of MGR and Jayalalithaa alive. The former AIADMK heavyweights have told the present party leadership that they are open to discussion on this for the betterment of the party. Notably, workers had openly come out and asked the current party leadership to bring back OPS and Sasikala so that a unified fight is put against the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
With inputs from IANS.