Who Wants a Bound Script?

After a flurry of coups and near ­coronations, TN may settle down to a Thevar­ Gounder tug of war.

- Kavitha Muralidharan

The script kept shifting with the same stunning immediacy as the scenes, acts and dramatis personae. The story that began unravelling on the night of December 5, when the colossus­ like J. Jayalalitha passed away, had the usual tangle of twists and turns—as always happens when a great mogul exits the stage. As the denouement wound on, a wildcard entrant, Edappadi Palanisamy, was in the spotlight. Saturday, February 18, is the day of reckoning for this relatively low­ key Gounder face from Salem. By then, the one who had threatened to dominate Tamil Nadu politics, Sasikala Natarajan, would be into her first lonely weekend in a Bangalore jail.

It’s surely been one of the longest political dramas in three decades—and that’s saying something in a state not especially new to drama—but it may not end with an oath of office, or even Saturday’s floor test. After the rebellion mounted by the ‘almost man’, O. Panneerselvam, Sasikala’s camp had just about stanched the loss of blood—and the numbers are behind Palanisamy for now. But there are seeds of instability too. For one, Sasikala’s family, the ‘Mannargudi mafia’, will make a play for control over party and government and no one knows if AIADMK leaders and cadres would accept it in the long run. And interested parties with a stake, from opposition DMK to the BJP central leadership, will be watching keenly.