Madurai: Forest minister Dindigul C. Srinivasan dropped a bombshell alleging that the Sasikala family was responsible for the death of Jayalalithaa. The minister’s charge, made at his Anna birth anniversary rally at Dindigul on Friday, brings pressure not only on the rival AIADMK faction led by the jailed Sasikala and captained by her beleaguered nephew TTV Dhinakaran but also upon Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami as he did not follow up on his promise of a judicial commission to probe Amma’s demise in the Apollo Hospital last November.
Recalling that Sasikala was in charge when Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo, minister Srinivasan said top leaders including BJP president Amit Shah, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, finance minister Arun Jaitley and TN Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao, were prevented from seeing Amma under the pretext they could carry infection to her.
“The people of Tamil Nadu have already declared they would have nothing to do with the killers of our Amma. Only Sasikala and family were responsible for the death and that’s why we convened the general council to throw them out of the party”, Srinivasan said.
He said Dhinkaran, “using his ill-gotten money”, had planned to unseat Edappadi K. Palaniswami as Chief Minister and grab the post himself by winning the RK Nagar byelection. “We all were aware of his plan, but were not in the position to reveal it outside,” he said and added that it was in such a situation that Prime Minister Narendra Modi “came as a god and stopped the by-election”.
Minister Srinivasan regretted supporting the Sasikala family during that period and said, “People should forgive us for that”. He also alleged that Dhinkaran sent his men to Singapore to negotiate with DMK leader MK Stalin’s son-in-law Sabareesan for getting the post of deputy CM and two berths in the DMK cabinet for his nominees after toppling the Edappadi government.
While Srinivasan's bombshell rocked the political corridors and excited the news rooms — albeit on an issue that has been over-debated to levels of fatigue — it got certification of authenticity by his cabinet colleague Vellamandi Natarajan.
Dindigul Srinivasan's charge is absolutely correct. Sasikala and family did not permit any of us, MPs, MLAs and even VIPs to see Amma. That's the reason why the Chief Minister is setting up a judicial probe into Amma's demise, Natarajan told reporters at Tiruchy on Saturday.
Hitting back at Dindigul Srinivasan's charge, TTV Dhinakaran alleged that CM Palaniswami's relatives “are caught in serious corruption”.
There were also charges of corruption against OPS and some other ministers.
“Now Edappadi Palaniswami has lost the majority to rule the state. All the ministers will soon lose their jobs and return home. They will all end up maamiyar veedu (prison) after that”, said Dhinakaran.
