Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapadi Palaniswami (right) gestures as he pays his respects at the memorial for former state chief minister Jayalalithaa after being sworn in Chennai yesterday.
Bengaluru: AIADMK General Secretary V.K. Sasikala on Thursday watched on television K. Palaniswami taking oath as the new Chief Minster of Tamil Nadu at Raj Bhavan in Chennai from the Central Jail on the city's southern outskirts, said sources.
"Sasikala watched live Palaniswami and 30 lawmakers taking oath as the Chief Minister and Cabinet ministers in the prison's woman barracks, along with her sister-in-law Elavarasi and other inmates," a jail official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.
Sasikala, 60, Elavarasi and her nephew V.K. Sudhakaran returned to the prison on Wednesday and surrendered to resume the four-year term they were sentenced to after being held guilty of corruption in the two-decades old illegal assets case.
The main convict -- late Tamil Nadu J. Jayalalathaa -- passed away on December 5 after a prolonged illness in a private hospital in Chennai.
"Palanaswami is likely to visit the prison on Friday along with his cabinet colleagues to take blessings of Chinnamma (Sasikala) before assuming charge," party's Karnataka unit Secretary V.A. Pugazhendi told reporters here.
Police stepped up security and put up barricades outside the jail complex at Parapanna Agrahara area to prevent the ruling party's factions from crowding and causing law and order problem.
"In view of Wednesday's clashes between the cadres of the party's two factions when Sasikala came from Chennai by road, we have decided to restrict the entry of people to the prison to prevent any untoward incident," said a police official.
Returning to the jail after 21-day stay from September 27 to October 18, 2014, as the apex court Tuesday upheld their conviction by the trial court, Sasikala had a hard time in the cell as she could not sleep and was said to be restless at night.
"Chinnamma could not sleep well and was restless as she had to lie down on the floor in a 10x8 feet cell in the women's barracks after jail officials denied her request for a mattress," lamented Pugazhendi earlier in the day.
As the trial court denied Sasikala's demand for some privileges, including home food, she refused to have supper on Wednesday though she was served two rotis, one ragi ball, 200 gm rice and 150 gm sambar (lentil) like all other inmates.
"When Elavarasi cajoled her to have food in view of her weak health, she took rice with sambar and butter milk," recalled the jail source.
The judge (Ashwath Narayana) also rejected Sasikala's request for a special room for prayers and yoga, A-class facilities and an attached toilet-cum-bathroom. She was given a plate, a tumbler and a blanket.
Before entering the cell, she deposited her valuables at the counter and recorded the three weeks she spent in the prison in 2014, as per the procedure.
Expressing anguish over her plight and harsh conditions in which women inmates live in prisons, Pugazhendi said Sasikala woke up early (5 a.m.), did yoga and walked in the barracks for a while.
"She also read a couple of Tamil newspapers, had tamarind rice for breakfast at 7.30 a.m. and a frugal meal (sambar rice) for lunch at 12.30," said Pugazhendi.
Saskiala, 59, surrendered before the trial court here on Wednesday evening and entered the jail premises before 6 p.m after the Supreme Court declined her plea for more time to give herself up.
K Palaniswami, a loyalist of the jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala, took oath as Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister, ending for now an ugly war within the ruling party.
Governor C Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to Palaniswami, 63, and his team at the Raj Bhavan, only hours after inviting him to form a government.
Palaniswami took oath in Tamil, followed by 30 ministers in batches. He has to prove his majority in the assembly within 15 days. The assembly has, however, been convened tomorrow and the Sasikala faction said it was confident of proving its majority of at least 117 legistors in the house of 234.
"We have the support of 125 legislators and we will prove our majority," VN Virugai Ravi, a legislator, said.
Palaniswami has retained the crucial Finance Ministry he had in the outgoing government of O Panneerselvam, whose attempt to foil Sasikala's bid to be the Chief Minister led to bitter fighting in the AIADMK.
A farmer by profession, Palaniswami also retained the portfolios of Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports he held in the earlier government.
A Raj Bhavan statement said senior party leaders C Sreenivasan and K A Sengottaiyan — the only new face in the cabinet — were designated as Minister for Forests and Minister for School Education and Sports and Youth Welfare.
P Thangamani will be in charge of Electricity, Prohibition and Excise. The other ministers are: K Raju, S P Velumani, D Jayakumar, C Ve. Shanmugam, K P Anbalagan, V Saroja, M C Sampath, K C Karuppanan, R Kamaraj, O S Manian, K Radhakrishnan, C Vijaya Baskar, R Doraikkannu, Kadambur Raju, R B Udhayakumar, N Natarajan, K C Veeramani, K T Rajenthra Bhalaji, P Benjamin, Nilofer Kafeel, M R Vijayabaskar, M Manikandan, V M Rajjalakshmi, G Baskaran, S Ramachandran, S Valarmathi and P Balakrishna Reddy.
Dropped from the previous cabinet are Panneerselvam and former School Education Minister K Pandiarajan.
Panneerselvam, who took charge of the government after the December 5 death of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, vowed to pursue his fight against "one family" controlling the AIADMK — a reference to Sasikala.
He said people were angry that a new government was formed with the support of legislators who, he said, were held for days in captivity at a resort near here. His aides said they would meet Election Commission officials in Delhi to complain that Sasikala had no right to be the AIADMK General Secretary.
Sasikala was elected to the top post and then chosen as the AIADMK legislature party leader by MLAs to enable her to replace Panneerselvam as the Chief Minister. That's when Panneerselvam revolted, leading to the worst faction fighting in the AIADMK.
DMK leader M K Stalin said the 15 days time given to Palaniswami to prove his majority would result in horse trading.
Shortly after the oath taking, a group of supporters of the new Chief Minister stoned Panneerselvam's house to protest against the presence of a number of backers of the former Chief Minister.
The celebrations by Palaniswami supporters came after a day of gloom when Sasikala returned to the Central Jail in Bengaluru after being held guilty of corruption by the Supreme Court. Also jailed with her were her relatives Elavarsi and V N Sudhakaran. Sasikala, who had wished to become the Chief Minister, is now barred from contesting elections for 10 years.
Barring Panneerselvam and Pandiarajan, all other MLAs in "the rival camp are welcome to join us", AIADMK leader O S Manian told the media.
Hailing from Nedungulam village in Salem district, Palaniswami belongs to the Gounder community. He joined the AIADMK in the 1980s and entered the Tamil Nadu assembly for the first time in 1989 from Edapadi constituency. After the Supreme Court upheld the earlier conviction of Sasikala, she chose Palaniswami as her successor as the leader of the party legislature wing.
