After her,the deluge

The void caused by Jayalalithaa’s death is likely to push Tamil Nadu into an era of political turbulence and could shake the foundations of Dravidian politics.

- Lakshmi Subramanian

It was as if the heart of Tamil Nadu had stopped. Loud cries could be heard from every corner of the state. Frustration, anger and grief were visible on the faces of party men waiting anxiously outside the gates of the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai. The hospital was cordoned off by thousands of policemen, after it issued a statement on the evening of December 4 that Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had suffered a cardiac arrest. Women rolled on the roads, weeping loudly. Some were praying continuously. “Oh God! Save her. We children cannot live without Amma,” said Rajarathinam, a cadre from Kanchipuram.

Next day, it was clear that the situation was getting worse. Cadres were restive. Emotions flared. As news about Jayalalithaa’s death was leaked by a television channel by 5:30pm, agitated supporters started throwing stones and water bottles. Within minutes, the hospital issued a press release terming the news “fake.” The crowd settled and an eerie silence prevailed. Around 10pm, a meeting of AIADMK legislators, which was postponed earlier, started at the party headquarters. A while later, senior ministers including O. Panneerselvam rushed from Apollo to the meeting. The meeting was over within minutes after which the MLAs set out to the Raj Bhavan, where Panneerselvam was sworn in as chief minister along with his 31 cabinet colleagues. The police, meanwhile, secured the three-kilometre route from the hospital to Jayalalithaa’s official residence at Poes Garden.