Expelled AIADMK MP Sasikala Pushpa on Monday alleged that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha’s friend and long-time ally Sasikala Natarajan was trying to seize power in the state by usurping the ruling AIADMK and government.
Pushpa, who was recently in the news when she broke down inside the parliament, urged the cadres to “destroy the conspiracies hatched against the leader.”
Recalling an incident in 2011 when Jayalithaa had expelled her friend Sasikala Natarajan and her relatives from the primary membership of the party for their "treacherous acts", the Rajya Sabha MP charged her with plotting another conspiracy against the AIADMK chief.
Speaking to mediapersons in New Delhi, Pushpa said, "I myself, and cadres (AIADMK) have every reason to suspect that such conspiracies are being hatched again in 2016. In the last two or three days, we have been getting to see reports as to why Sasikala should not be at the helm of party and contest in the forthcoming bypoll in Thanjavur?"
"It is Sasikala, who is behind such reports seeking publicity," she added.
Demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Jayalalithaa’s health, she said, “There is a need for a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation. The AIADMK cadres are anxious over her ailments and doubtful if there is anyone behind it,” adding that the CM was quite well until recently.
She said the administrative machinery should respond only to chief minister and not to "outside elements."
Pushpa also wrote to Tamil Nadu Governor that “some people might forge hospitalised Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha’s signature to nominate a deputy general secretary in her absence, in a purported reference to Sasikala Natarajan.
In a letter to Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, dated October 8, she said, “It is feared that some people around Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, now hospitalised may forge her signature to nominate a deputy general secretary to AIADMK and to sun the government also. Kindly verify ADMK general secretary signature if any official communication came from her. We request you to verify carefully, if at all any official communication came from them in this or any other regard.”
Sasikala Natarajan, a long-time ally of Jayalithaa was expelled from AIADMK by the party chief in 2011 after the fallout between the two. Sasikala’s family was forced out of Poes Garden with some of the members either arrested or forced to go into hiding. It was reported back then that Jaya got the whip about the suspected poisoning of the CM by a servant, appointed by Sasikala.
She also got to know about a meeting attended by Sasikala's relatives where they discussed the succession plan in case Jayalalithaa was incarcerated in disproportionate assets case.
Jayalaithaa reinducted Sasikala in March 2012 after she publicly distanced herself from her family members and said that she was totally unaware of any conspiracy that her family members may have hatched.
Sasikala had issued a public statement disowning her family and saying that she would like to be with Jayalalithaa for the rest of her life.
