Hours after Income Tax officials raided late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s Veda Nilayam residence in Chennai, CM Edappadi Palaniswami and several ministers prayed at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai.
Friday night’s searches at Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence had angered AIADMK cadre, who accused the BJP-led Centre and EPS of orchestrating the raids.
And while CM EPS and his Deputy CM O Panneerselvam have remained silent so far, several members of the ruling faction chose to speak out, and attempted to distance themselves from the raids. Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan was one of the first to react to the raids. Taking to Facebook, Maitreyan said the raids at Poes Garden caused him great pain. “Whatever be the reason, a raid in Poes Garden where Amma lived gives great pain. As far as I'm concerned, Amma's home is a temple,” posted Maitreyan on Facebook.
Maitreyan’s sentiments were shared by his party colleague and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, who said, “Jayalalithaa’s residence is a holy place. Anyone who brings disgrace to the temple will not be accepted. It's a temple for us. I will meet the Chief Minister regarding this and convey my opinion.”
Fisheries Minister Jayakumar, however, pinned the blame on sidelined AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala and family. “The raids that happened at Amma’s residence have caused us great pain. But after Amma’s death, Sasikala and her relatives including Dhinakaran, lived in that house so that is the problem. So, people of Tamil Nadu need to understand because of whom this problem has happened. Sasikala and her family are the reason. The person whom we honour as our god, raids at Amma’s house has caused great pain,” said Jayakumar.
That a ‘temple’ had been desecrated by the raids on Jayalalithaa’s residence was a line that had been repeated by several members of the Sasikala faction as well. Sasikala’s nephew Vivek Jayaraman, who was present while the searches were being carried out, told the media that they had not allowed I-T officials to search Jayalalithaa’s room. Calling it a ‘temple’, he said the I-T sleuths searched the rest of the house and the adjoining office at Veda Nilayam.
Vivek told the media that a bundle of letters addressed to Jayalalithaa, two laptops and two pen drives had been seized in the raids. He also said they were willing to answer further questions from I-T officials.
Sidelined Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran has, however, accused EPS and OPS of mortgaging the AIADMK to stay in power. Even as the raids were underway on Friday night, Dhinakaran tweeted, "EPS and OPS have mortgaged the party to stay in power, how many more betrayals can we expect from them?"
In another tweet, he added, "Whatever the reason behind the I-T raids at Poes Gardens, this is a betrayal to Amma's atma. Edappadi and Panneerselvam are behind this betrayal."