Sasikala Natarajan is all set to be discharged from Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital on Sunday. She has been undergoing treatment for COVID-19 since January 21 in the hospital. According to a bulletin issued by the hospital on Saturday, Sasikala is asymptomatic and maintaining oxygen saturation without the need for any external support for the past three days. “The team of doctors attending to her have taken the decision that she is fit for discharge and she will be discharged tomorrow (31.02.2021) with advice of home quarantine,” the statement added. The accurate time of her discharge is not clear from the bulletin.
Her return to Tamil Nadu is considered significant ahead of the Assembly polls scheduled in the state in a few months. The current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami was, in fact, appointed by her, when she took over the reins of AIADMK after the death of former Chief Minister and AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa. The party had split into two factions — one headed by Sasikala and the other group headed by Jayalalithaa’s loyalist O Panneerselvam.
Sasikala soon left to serve her sentence under the Disproportionate Assets case in Parappana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru. As soon as she left, the two factions merged, with O Panneerselvam being designated as the party’s Coordinator (and the Deputy Chief MInister) and Edappadi Palaniswami taking charge as AIADMK’s Joint Coordinator (and remaining in the Chief Minister’s chair). Together, they also abolished the General Secretary post in AIADMK and vowed to keep Sasikala out of the party and ousted all her loyalists from the party. Her loyalists, led by her nephew TTV Dhinakaran eventually started the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) in an attempt to reclaim Jayalalithaa’s legacy.
Recently, Edappadi Palaniswami announced that Sasikala’s arrival will not have any impact on AIADMK and that she will not be welcome inside the party. Criticising this, Namadhu MGR, AMMK’s mouthpiece, called Edappadi Palaniswami a ‘traitor’ who is at the helm now only because of Sasikala’s gesture in 2017. It further went on to say that it is imminent that AIADMK will be redeemed by Sasikala, who will soon return to Tamil Nadu.