Amid the ongoing crisis in Tamil Nadu, Sasikala Natarajan has been replaced by Edappadi K Palanisamy as legislative party leader hours after the Supreme Court convicted Sasikala for corruption and awarded her a 4 years jail term on February 14.
Edappadi K Palanisamy was serving as Minister for Highways & Minor Ports in theTamil Nadu government.
In a massive blow for AIADMK General Secretary Sasikala Natarajan, the Supreme Court convicted her in the disproportionate asset case against her. Additionally, she has also been fined for Rs 10 crore. She will have to surrender in the Karnataka court.
After the verdict, Sasikala held an emergency meeting at the Golden Bay resort where she had lodged all the MLAs to keep the flock together. Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar is also present at the emergency meeting being called by Sasikala at the Golden Bay resort. It was being speculated that Sasikala may appoint Deepa as the Legislative head of the party.
The Supreme Court has ordered Sasikala to serve rest of her jail sentence of three years and six months as she has already served almost six months in jail. Now that she has been convicted, she will not be qualified to be the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Additionally, she would not also be allowed to contest elections for 10 years. The Governor can no more invite her to form the government. Yesterday, while addressing the party MLAs Sasikala had said that she had gone to the jail earlier and had no qualms going back to the jail again.
