Sasikala Natarajan, the woman who is in the middle of all the drama in Tamil Nadu politics at the moment, spoke to an English news channel on Wednesday (February 8), speaking her mind over the chaos prevailing in the state at the moment over the successor of J Jayalalithaa, the towering leader who passed away in December last year.
In an interview which lasted for nearly half-an-hour and during which the 60-year-old Sasikala spoke in Tamil, which had to be translated by an interpreter for the non-Tamil-speaking audience, a lot of her views on the state's politics came to the fore.
Here are five takeaways from the interview that Sasikala gave, sometimes with teary eyes.
Lashed out at O Panneerselvam
Sasikala, in a typical style of a fierce rival in a tug-of-war, called Panneerselvam, who succeeded Jayalalithaa as the CM of Tamil Nadu after her death, a "naked, open traitor". She said even members of the AIADMK has sought her guidance and asked who OPS was. The lines are clearly drawn between the two loyal followers of the departed leader and could be a major issue for the party to manage if it has to remain together.
Ready to face probe over Jayalalithaa's death
This remark from Sasikala clearly shows that she has not forgotten to use the memory of the late leader to lay down her stepping stone.
Although in India, public memory is generally short, Sasikala knows very well that to make a career in politics, she has to play cards of emotion. Chinnamma's teary eyes while speaking about Amma was also evidence of the fact that the former has learnt the preliminary lessons of becoming a politician.
Now, she is ready to face the more difficult things attached to Jayalalithaa because that certainly makes her own image strong.
Taking on the DMK
Although she has never fought an election, she knows who's the biggest political enemy in the state and hence remarked: "DMK's motive is always to destroy the AIADMK. They are our enemy party".
At a time when the DMK is also tuning itself in with the next generation of leaders, Sasikala has a genuine urge to keep ahead of what MK Stalin thinks. She did not even hesitate to say that Panneerselvam is DMK's own. By 'unifying' her enemies, Sasikala showed that her calculation is heading in the right direction.
The Cauvery water issue
The leader said she would fight for Tamil Nadu's interest and that includes the Cauvery water-sharing issue — the perennial tussle with neighbouring Karnataka.
Sasikala is fortunate that she is in the ruling party for if she somehow succeeds to bury Panneerselvam's challenge and eventually become the chief minister, her first move will be to renew the Cauvery issue as that would make her popular.
Cauvery, after all, is a river which gives political benefits in Tamil Nadu.
Finally, Sasikala is on the verge of almost rerunning the 30-year-old script which had unfolded after the death of MG Ramachandran.
Then, Jayalalithaa had defeated MGR's widow Janaki as the eventual power woman and dominated the state for a long, long time. This time, Sasikala seems to be on her way to repeat her mentor's feat.
She was the one who had sided with Jayalalithaa during her days of struggle. She also expressed her confidence despite knowing that she has an entire state opposing her ambition. Perhaps she knows that her long period of patience is about to pay off.
