“We could not even get a glimpse of her yesterday because of the crowd. So, we came to look at the place where she lived and will now go to her samadhi ,” said a freshly tonsured I Sekar from Salem, one of the visitors to the posh Poes Garden area where former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa lived, on Wednesday.
A day after she was laid to rest, Jayalalithaa’s home ‘Veda Nilayam’ continues to attract not just her supporters but also those in power.
Sasikala to run the show?Vehicles with red beacons stream past police barricades, lending credence to speculation that Sasikala, the close confidante of Jayalalithaa, continues to be a power centre.
It is believed that O Panneerselvam, the Finance Minister in Jayalalithaa’s Cabinet, who was sworn in chief minister on Monday night, will have to contend with Sasikala as the General Secretary of the ruling party. Policemen stop visitors and vehicles a couple of hundred metres away from ‘Veda Nilayam’.
“No journalists allowed,” said a cop as a team of policemen screen vehicles and allow only residents through.
“We have been instructed not to allow anyone inside,” he added. AIADMK supporters, many of them freshly tonsured as a mark of mourning for ‘Amma’, as they call her, gather in groups. The policemen line them up behind barricades and let them through in groups of ten. They are allowed to walk up to the gates of ‘Veda Nilayam’.
Zakir Hussain from Erode, an ardent supporter of Amma, said the house should be turned into a memorial. He was planning to visit the ‘Samadhi’ next.
It is clear Jayalalithaa’s burial spot will soon be a third memorial attracting visitors to the Chennai beach after those of two former chief ministers CN Annadurai, founder of the DMK, as well as MGR, who floated AIADMK, after breaking away from the DMK.