Sasikala Natarajan

Sasikala Natarajan (born 1957) is an confidante of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) politician and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa. During Jayalalithaa's three tenures as Chief Minister, Sasikala is alleged to have wielded absolute power behind the scenes.

Early life

Sasikala was born in Mannargudi in the then Tanjore district. She belongs to Thevar (Kallar)community. After initial schooling, she dropped out. Sasikala married R. Natarajan, a public relations officer in the Tamil Nadu government. Her husband R. Natarajan was working as a Public Relations officer in Tamil Nadu government on temporary basis. He was working closely with the then District Collector of Cuddalore V S Chandralekha, IAS, who in turn was very close to the then Tamil Nadu CM M G Ramachandran.^[1]

Meeting with Jayalalithaa

Natarajan lost his job in 1976 due to the Indian Emergency. Denied its main source of income, the family was forced to sell or pawn jewels. At this junction, Natarajan requested V. S. Chandralekha, who was then the District Collector of South Arcot, to introduce his wife Sasikala to Jayalalithaa, who was then the Propaganda Secretary of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Sasikala began shooting marriages and functions for Jayalalithaa and gradually became a close friend.^[2]

Expulsion from AIADMK

On 19 December 2011, Jayalalithaa expelled her long-time close aide Sasikala Natarajan and 13 others including Sasikala's husband Natarajan and their relatives, including T T V Dinakaran and Jayalalithaa's disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran and relieved them from the AIADMK. Sasikala has been a close confidante of Jayalalithaa for several years now. Most of the party members have welcomed her decision.^[3][4][5]

Re-admission into AIADMK

Sasikala was admitted back into the party on 31 March when she vowed to sever her ties with all her relatives and to serve with no public ambitions. In a letter dated 28 March which was sent to Jayalalithaa, she was unaware of the running a parallel government by her relatives until she was expelled.^[6][7]

Disproportionate asset case

Sasikala along with Jayalalithaa and two others was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment by a special court in Bangalore on 27 September 2014. Along with imprisonment, they also asked to pay fine of Rs.100 Crores for Jayalalithaa and Rs.10 Crores for Sasikala and others.

References