Sasikala Natarajan

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Not to be confused with Sasikala Pushpa.

Sasikala Natarajan
Aide to Tamil Nadu CM J.Jayalalitha
Personal details
1 April 1956 (age 60)
Born
Tamil Nadu, India
Political party
AIADMK
Spouse(s)
M. Natrajan
Profession
Politician
Religion
Hindu
Sasikala Natarajan (born 1956) was a confidant of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (AIADMK) politician and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa.
During Jayalalithaa's three tenures as Chief Minister, Sasikala is alleged to have wielded absolute
power behind the scenes. She was arrested along with Jayalalithaa as on 7 December 1996 and
was remanded to judicial custody for 30 days in connection with the Colour TV scam.[1]
However they were acquitted by the Supreme Court as the charges were found to be baseless
allegations.

Contents

1 Early life

2 Meeting with Jayalalithaa

3 Expulsion from AIADMK

4 Re-admission into AIADMK

5 Disproportionate asset case

6 References

Early life
Sasikala was born in Tiruvarur, a place 28 km from Mannargudi in the then Tanjore district in a
Kallar family. After initial schooling, she dropped out. Sasikala married M. Natarajan, a public

relations officer in the Tamil Nadu government. Her husband M. Natarajan was working as a
Public Relations officer in Tamil Nadu government on temporary basis. He was workin closely
with the then District Collector of Cuddalore V S Chandralekha, IAS, who in turn was very close
to the then Tamil Nadu CM [Rishivarman]].[2]

Meeting with Jayalalithaa

Natarajan lost his job in 1976 due to the [Indian Emergency]. Denied its main source of income,
the family was forced to sell or pawn jewels. At this juncture, Natarajan requested V. S.
Chandralekha, who was then the District Collector of South Arcot, to introduce his wife Sasikala
to Jayalalithaa, who was then the Propaganda Secretary of the Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam. Sasikala shooting all the marriages and the functions for Jayalalithaa and gradually
then became a very close friend of Jaylalithaa.[3] Sasikala was sentenced along with Jayalalitha in
TANSI land acquisition case along with Jayalalitha in a trial court to two years rigorous
imprisonment and was later relieved by the Madras High Court.

Expulsion from AIADMK

On 19 December 2011, Jayalalithaa expelled her long-time close aide Sasikala Natarajan and 13
others including Sasikala's husband Natarajan and their relatives, including T. T. V. Dhinakaran
and Jayalalithaa's disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran and relieved them from the AIADMK.
Sasikala has been a close confidante of Jayalalithaa for several years now. Most members of the
party welcomed her decision.[4][5][6]

Re-admission into AIADMK

Sasikala was admitted back into the party on 31 March 2012, when she vowed to sever her ties
with all her relatives and to serve with no public ambitions. In a letter dated 28 March which was
sent to Jayalalithaa, she was unaware of the running a parallel government by her relatives until
she was expelled.[7]

Disproportionate asset case

Sasikala along with Jayalalithaa and two others were sentenced to 4 years imprisonment by a
special court in Bangalore on 27 September 2014. Along with imprisonment, they also asked to
pay fine of Rs.100 Crores for Jayalalithaa and Rs.10 Crores for Sasikala and others.They were
acquitted by High Court as they were found to be not guilty. The case is now pending in Supreme
Court. Sasikala now controls the leading AIADMK party after Jayalithaa's death on December
5,2016.