Rajya Sabha MP Sasikala Pushpa, who was recently expelled from the AIADMK after an altercation with a DMK MP in the Delhi airport, has filed a complaint seeking police protection for herself and her family members.
In her complaint to the Delhi DCP, the MP claimed that she was being threatened into resigning by AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa, her aid Sasikala, the Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha, Thambidurai, and all of the party’s MPs.
As she does not wish to resign her position in Parliament, she wrote, she may face a threat to her life from the party. “Thus I place this Criminal Complaint before DCP. So that me and my family may get complete protection with immediate effect,” she wrote.
She also wrote that based on the “fact history of my party Supremo”, she may face harassment and attacks from members of the party. Therefore, it was imperative that she receive protection immediately. “Otherwise I cannot even survive for a minute.”
The controversy started after Sasikala manhandled DMK MP Tiruchy Siva at the Delhi airport a few days ago. Though Sasikala had claimed that she was angry at Tiruchy Siva for speaking ill of Jayalalithaa, it seems to have been a personal equation gone wrong.
In the run up to the elections, pictures of Sasikala and Siva in intimate positions had gone viral. Adding to controversy around her, a telephone conversation of Sasikala criticising government action during the floods had also been widely leaked.
Though Sasikala was expected to be reprimanded by Jayalalithaa for manhandling Siva, she took everyone by storm after she was expelled from the party, telling Parliament that she was under threat from her leadership.
While Sasikala said “she harassed me” and “she slapped me” in the Parliament, she did not elaborate on who the ‘she’ was. In the letter however, she mentioned Jayalalithaa by name.
Taking on Jayalalithaa is largely unheard of in the AIADMK, other than a few exceptions.
Political observers say Sasikala’s growth in the party had been too fast and her U-turn, considering she was a one-time Jayalalithaa favourite, was surprising.
Sasikala, from Mudhalur in Thoothukudi district, was chosen to contest for the AIADMK from the Radhapuram constituency in 2011, but the seat was later allotted to ally DMDK.
In a move that had taken senior AIADMK functionaries by surprise, she was named the Mayoral candidate for Thoothukudi Corporation in October 2011. Her growth within the party from then on had been dramatic. She was made secretary of AIADMK’s women’s wing in 2014 and then nominated to Rajya Sabha. Even in the Rajya Sabha, she was made the party’s whip despite being a novice.
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