Confined mainly to her home these days since the Supreme Court granted her bail after staying her sentence in the disproportionate assets case, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa is not scheduled to participate in the 98th birth anniversary celebrations of her political mentor M.G. Ramachandran at party headquarters here this year.
According to a party statement, AIADMK presidium chairman E. Madhusudhanan will garland the MGR statue at the party office in Royapettah on January 17. He will also release a souvenir on the occasion.
Ministers, MPs, MLAs and leaders of various wings will also participate in the birth anniversary, said the statement issued with her consent on Monday.
Incidentally, it came early on Monday before the Election Commission announced the by-elections to the Srirangam Assembly constituency that fell vacant after her disqualification following the conviction by a special court in Bengaluru on September 27 last.
Speculation
With the ECI in the evening announcing the by-poll for Srirangam on February 13, political circles here were agog with speculation whether Ms. Jayalalithaa will campaign for it or not, more so in the context of the AIADMK supremo staying put at her residence in recent months.
After release from the Parapanna Agrahara prison in Bengaluru on October 18 last, she has not attended even party functions. Only twice, she had made her presence felt —on Thevar Jayanthi and MGR’s death anniversary — to the outside world. On both occasions, she paid tributes to the leaders’ portraits kept at her home.
Bail conditions
Party seniors say she is unlikely to risk her bail conditions or her political career by physically campaigning in Srirangam, but would rather send a message across to the electorate. “There is no need. We have won every by-election in the past three-and-half-years. Amma can get the party to triumph in Srirangam from her home,” says a senior leader.
1997 Pudukottai by-poll
Ms. Jayalalithaa had faced a similar dilemma closer to the Assembly by-election from Pudukottai in early February 1997. The AIADMK leader had been released on bail only in January after the then DMK government had arrested her in the ‘colour TV purchase’ case, in which she was later acquitted.
Ms. Jayalalithaa had then kept away from the by-poll campaign on health grounds and it was then left to S. Thirunavukkarasar to campaign .
The Pudukottai by-election had even caught the national media’s attention. Though the then DMK-TMC combine kept up its winning streak, the DMK candidate’s margin had been considerably eroded even without Ms. Jayalalithaa not campaigning.