M Natarajan, husband of J Jayalaithaa’s close aide Sasikala Natarajan, said in an interview in 2014 that if it was not for the disproportionate assets case, the late Tamil Nadu CM would have thrown Sasikala out of her Poes Garden residence.
In an interview to NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain ahead of the 2014 general elections, when asked why Sasikala was still in Poes Garden, Natarajan said:
No, nothing, except the disproportionate income case. If it was not for it, Jaya herself would send Sasikala out. Because it is her nature.
Natarajan also claimed that Sasikala had promised a few family members that she would return to their fold once the case was over.
Natarajan’s revelations in 2014 assume significance at a time when the state is seeing the return of the whole Mannargudi clan. (Sasikala’s family is referred to as the Mannargudi clan or mafia in Tamil Nadu.)
On 6 December, the day after Jayalalithaa was declared dead, Natarajan seems to have played a key role in her funeral arrangements. it was widely known that he was not in Jayalalithaa’s good books. In 2012, she also sent Sasikala packing from her Poes Garden residence for keeping in touch with her family members, who Amma believed were working against her.
Natarajan, however, told NDTV that it was he who broke off contact with Jayalalithaa, and not the other way around.
In the interview, Natarajan, who had once worked as a government PRO, claimed that in 1991, even the state Chief Secretary and Home Secretary were appointed after consulting him.
He said that during her first term as CM, Jayalalithaa had no option but to listen to him, since she was new to governance.
Natarajan sees himself as a key person in Amma’s ascension to power, and in figuring out the nitty-gritties of governance for her.
Owing to his fallout with Jayalalithaa, AIADMK cadre are now surprised and shocked at his return to the top echelons of the party.
Here is an excerpt from Natarajan’s 2014 interview to NDTV:
NDTV: If all of you were helping her so much — politically, financially and otherwise — then why did she break all contact with you?
Natarajan: It's not that she broke contact. I broke and came out.
NDTV: Why?
Natarajan: See, she has her own way of functioning in which I didn't want to interrupt in between.
NDTV: What was that?
Natarajan: She feels after winning the election, nobody should claim that she won because of A, B or C... There are two aspects to this. One is that if Natarajan and family are liquidated out of that area (Jayalalithaa's house), only then can DMK recapture that area. That is their primary agenda. To suit that idea, the officers at the helm of affairs who served under him (sic).
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