After J Jayalalithaa’s former aide and AIADMK chief VK Sasikala was convicted for fraud on Tuesday, Jaya’s niece Deepa Jayakumar joined hands with the O Panneerselvam camp. She had recently announced her plans to join politics after her aunt’s death.
On Tuesday night, Jayakumar met OPS and his supporters at Jayalalithaa’s grave to pay homage to the late CM, and pledged her support to OPS, thus marking her formal entry into politics.
Following a series of dramatic events over the course of a week, which came to a head on Tuesday with the arrest of Sasikala for co-conspiring in a case of fraud and disproportionate assets, Panneerselvam has now taken on AIADMK’s candidate E Palanisamy in a battle of votes for the position of Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
It was exactly a week ago that the he had alleged that Sasikala and her supporters had forced him to resign from the post of CM.
Sasikala, who had been vying to be CM herself, cannot contest elections for 10 years now as per her penalty (along with a five-year jail term). So, she has named Palanisamy as the CM candidate, and has also put 120 MLAs, who support the Palanisamy camp, in a luxury resort to avoid defection.
Deepa Jayakumar, the daughter of Jaya’s brother, has recently gathered support among AIADMK cadres as the true descendant of Jaya after she shot to fame for alleging that she had not been allowed to attend Jaya’s funeral.
After pledging her support to camp OPS, Deepa said that she, along with OPS, would act as the two hands of AIADMK, reports NDTV.
Jayakumar’s brother Deepak Jayakumar, however, is in Sasikala’s camp.
Feature Image Source: PTI