Jayalalithaa's hospital video on poll eve creates flutter

Chennai: A micro-brief video of Jayalalithaa drinking from a straw in her hospital bed has stirred a major political storm when 'expelled' AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran's loyalist P. Vetrivel released it to the media inside the State Secretariat shortly before noon on Wednesday. Vetri's 20-second bombshell, coming less than 20 hours before the polling begins in the high-stakes byelection in RK Nagar, rattled the ruling AIADMK and the already red-faced Election Commission.

Insisting that TTV had no foreknowledge of his video release, Vetri said he took the decision on his own as the ruling AIADMK drove him to the wall by distributing pamphlets in RK Nagar asking the people if they would really want to vote for the killers of 'Amma' Jayalalithaa. “The pamphlet had no name of the author or of the printer. We had no option but to release this video now to prove that Chinnamma (Sasikala) and Amma shared excellent relations”, he said.

Vetrivel claimed his video release was not for making any political gain in RK Nagar but only to counter the propaganda and clarify the truth regarding Amma’s death. “We have more videos (relating to Jaya's hospital stay), including one showing (then CM) OPS and his ministers discussing shifting of Jayalalithaa for treatment abroad. We will release them as and when necessary”, Vetri said, adding that the video was shot shortly after she was shifted from the ICU to a normal room. 

Understandably, the ruling AIADMK was rattled with the Jaya video release as it could help TTV’s chances in RK Nagar. “This demeaning act was a planned conspiracy by the Sasikala family to bring disrepute to Amma’s fame and image, done keeping in mind the bypoll”, said senior minister D. Jayakumar, demanding that the EC should take stern action against Vetrivel.

“The Sasikala family troubled Jayalalithaa immensely when she was alive and they are continuing this even after her death. How could the video be taken when there was so much of police security?The Enquiry Commission should go into all this”, said the minister.

“The Enquiry Commission has not called me; I would have presented this video if only I had been called. But then, the Commission did not call many important persons, including the then CM OPS and present CM EPS”, Vetri said, adding that over ten persons including the OPS-EPS duo and senior minister Dindigul Srinivasan were aware of the videos. Another institution that came under intense pressure by the video release was the Election Commission as speculation grew whether the bypoll would be cancelled, once again, as the voters could be influenced by some sympathy factor. News came later in the evening from Delhi that the EC decided to go ahead with the poll on Thursday.