Before falling out of favour with then Chief Minister and AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa in December 2011, her close aide V.K. Sasikala had wielded enormous influence in the government and party, according to the latter’s niece J. Krishnapriya. Sasikala had even handpicked senior bureaucrats posted in the Chief Minister’s Office.
In her deposition made on January 2, 2018, before the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry, which is probing Jayalalithaa’s hospitalisation and death, Ms Krishnapriya, the daughter of Sasikala’s sister-in-law and co-convict J. Ilavarasi, has said that only after 2012, Sasikala’s role “reduced considerably on issues such as political as well as [government] official appointments.”
Sources privy to her deposition told The Hindu , Ms. Krishnapriya had stated before the Commission that “Till 2011, selection of candidates for elections to the Legislative Assembly and initiation of disciplinary action against [AIADMK] party men were all carried out by her (Sasikala) after taking them to the notice of the (then) Chief Minister.”
Further, “In (government) administration, the transfers of officials, right from Collectors to top officials in the Secretariat, and even those in the police department, were carried out on her direct supervision. Only the trusted lieutenants of Sasikala were appointed as secretaries to the Chief Minister and they were handpicked by her,” the deposition, made under oath, read.
