All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader VK Sasikala on Wednesday announced that she was quitting public life. The announcement came right before the Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu that are scheduled for April 6. A close aide to political giant Jayalalithaa, Sasikala has seen several ups and downs in her long political life.
She was once set to be the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. But in an unprecedented turn of events, she instead had to serve a prison term for a Rs 66 crore disproportionate assets case. Now, just ahead of the Tamil Nadu elections, she has decided to quit politics.
Born in Tamil Nadu, Sasikala Natarajan was married to a man who was very close to the then district collector of Cuddalore, VS Chandralekha. It was she who introduced Sasikala and Jayalalithaa who went on to become very close to each other.
The duo was, however, arrested in 1996 in the Colour TV case in 1998.
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However, there was some unevenness in their relationship too. Sasikala was expelled from AIADMK for a while in 2011 but later was readmitted in 2012. After Jayalalithaa died in 2016, she was also appointed as the General Secretary of AIADMK. However, only a year later, in 2017, she was found guilty of corruption by the Supreme Court.
Sasikala was released from prison in January this year. She tested positive for COVID-19 and underwent treatment at a Karnataka hospital. Four years later, she came to Tamil Nadu, her birthplace, and had also said that she would be involved in active politics. But right ahead of the Tamil Nadu elections when BJP and AIADMK had been discussing accomodating Sasikala, she announced that she will be retiring from politics.
