Jayalalithaa's aide Sasikala - All you need to know

Chennai: Tamil Nadu is set to get its third woman CM.

AIADMK MLAs on Sunday elected general secretary VK Sasikala as their legislature leader, two months after her mentor J Jayalalithaa died.

The legislators unanimously chose Sasikala, who is not a member of the Assembly, for the post. And she lost no time in saying that outgoing Chief Minister O Panneerselvam himself wanted her to head the government. 

Addressing the legislators, the 59-year old Sasikala, a long-time confidante of Jayalalithaa, said Panneerselvam had also insisted earlier that she become the party head too.

Following are some facts related to her:

- 62-year-old Sasikala, shadow of Jayalalithaa for over three decades, was always considered a power centre and backroom player.

-  Her detractors in the party had in 1996 accused her of being responsible for Jayalalithaa's disastrous election defeat during that year.

- Sasikala accompanied Jayalalithaa to prison when the latter was arrested in a disproportionate assets case.

- She suffered a blow when she was expelled for anti-party ctivities only to be restored in a few months five years ago by Jayalalithaa.

- Sasikala resided with Jayalalithaa at the latter's house Veda Nilayam in Poes Garden, even choosing to stay away from her husband.

- Sasikala presence by Jayalalithaa's side when she was hospitalised on September 22 also raised some controversies, including allegations that access to the ailing leader was not being allowed even to the late CM's kin.

- Sasikala belongs to the dominant Thevar community like Panneerselvam.

- An aspiring small-time entrepreneur offering video coverage services and allied products like video cassettes in the early 1980s, Sasikala got acquainted with Jayalalithaa in 1982 along with her husband M Natarajan through the then IAS officer VS Chandraleka.

- It was Sasikala who had got video-graphed the function of Jayalalithaa while she was organising a party conference in Cuddalore in 1982.

- In her much televised 1999 interview 'Rendezvous with Simi Garewal', Jayalalithaa had said Sasikala was targeted much because of her association with her.

- She had described Sasikala as her 'sister' who fulfilled the role of her late mother by taking care of her. 

- Sasikala came into the limelight when Jayalalithaa took over as CM for the first time in 1991.

- Jayalalithaa's defeat in the 1996 polls was attributed to her conducting the infamous extravagant wedding of her foster son and Sasikala's nephew VN Sudhakaran in the previous year.

- Sasikala was also incarcerated along with Jayalalithaa in the alleged colour TV scam in 1996.

- After the AIADMK's rout, Jayalalithaa had announced that she was severing ties with Sasikala. Again in 2011, Sasikala was expelled along with her husband Natarajan and 12 other relatives.

- However, on both the occasions, they settled their differences and Sasikala resumed living in Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence after assuring the AIADMK chief that she would keep away from her relatives.

- Besides Sudhakaran being disowned by Jayalalithaa, Sasikala's husband and a host of other relatives also fell out of favour at Poes Garden.

- In early 1980s, Sasikala's husband Natarjan was a government PRO in Cuddalore with strong moorings in Dravidian ideology.

(With PTI inputs)