Profession Politician Spouse M. Natarajan Role Politician | Name Sasikala Natarajan Religion Hindu | |
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Born 29 January 1957 (age 67) Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, India ( 1957-01-29 ) Political party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | ||
Vijayashanti Supports Sasikala Natarajan For Tamil Nadu CM | TN Politics | V6 News
Vivekanandan Krishnaveni Sasikala also known as Sasikala Natarajan is an Indian politician who was the general secretary of AIADMK (Amma). She was a close aide of J. Jayalalithaa, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, who headed AIADMK from 1989 until her death in 2016. After Jayalalithaa's death, the party's general council unanimously appointed her as the interim secretary general of AIADMK. She was arrested along with Jayalalithaa on 7 December 1996 and was remanded to judicial custody for 30 days in connection with the Colour TV scam. During Jayalalithaa's three tenures as Chief Minister,On 14 February 2017, a two-bench Supreme Court jury pronounced her guilty and ordered her immediate arrest in a disproportionate-assets case, effectively ending her Chief Ministerial ambitions.
Contents
- Vijayashanti Supports Sasikala Natarajan For Tamil Nadu CM TN Politics V6 News
- Early life
- Meeting with Jayalalithaa
- Expulsion from AIADMK
- Interim General Secretary of AIADMK
- AIADMK Legislature Party Leader
- Conviction
- In media
- References
Early life
Sasikala was born to a family from Thiruthuraipoondi who later moved to Mannargudi. Her marriage to M. Natarajan was witnessed by DMK leader M. Karunanidhi. Her husband, who was a public relations officer in the Government of Tamil Nadu, worked closely with the District Collector of Cuddalore, V. S. Chandralekha, who in turn was very close to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran.
Meeting with Jayalalithaa
In the early 1980s, M. Natarajan requested V. S. Chandralekha, who was then the District Collector of South Arcot, to introduce his wife Sasikala to Jayalalithaa, who was then the Propaganda Secretary of the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, for recording video of party functions. Sasikala gradually became very close.
Expulsion from AIADMK
On 19 December 2011, Jayalalithaa expelled Sasikala Natarajan and 13 others including Sasikala's husband M. Natarajan, T. T. V. Dhinakaran, their relatives, and Jayalalithaa's disowned foster son V. N. Sudhakaran from the AIADMK. Jayalalithaa alleged that Sasikala and her family were working against her. The matter was resolved by 31 March 2012, when Sasikala Natarajan was reinstated as a party member after issuing a written apology.
Interim General Secretary of AIADMK
In a meeting held on 29 December 2016 – the first after Jayalalithaa's death on 5 December 2016 – the AIADMK general council unanimously appointed Sasikala as the party's general secretary.
AIADMK Legislature Party Leader
On 5 February 2017, Sasikala was unanimously elected as the AIADMK Legislature Party Leader by a meeting of all the MLAs in the party. Tamil Nadu Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao accepted the resignation of Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on 6 February 2017, and instructed him to continue to function as acting Chief Minister "until alternate arrangements are made".
Conviction
On 14 February 2017, the Supreme Court of India found Sasikala and her co-accused — Ilavarasi (her sister-in-law) and V. N. Sudhakaran (her nephew) — guilty of conspiring, laundering and amassing illicit wealth worth about ₹66.44 crore (equivalent to ₹254 crore or US$40 million in 2016) in the 1990s in a criminal conspiracy with Jayalalithaa. The three were sentenced to a four-year jail term. This restored in toto her earlier conviction in the case delivered on 27 September 2014, awarding a four-year jail term to her and her relatives, in addition to imposing a fine of ₹10 crore (US$1.6 million) each. The judgment stipulated that she and her accomplices would serve an additional 12 months in prison if they failed to pay the fine.
The Supreme Court refused her plea to surrender after a fortnight and to be allowed to have food from home, so Sasikala and Ilavarasi, but not Sudhakaran, presented themselves for imprisonment on 15 February 2017.
In media
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has announced that he is planning a film covering Sasikala's early life and the things she did to gain entry into Tamil Nadu politics.