File photo of Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK Chief J Jayalalithaa expelled former two-time MP K Malaisamy from her party, a day after he suggested she would join hands with the BJP. In her statement Ms Jayalalithaa cites "violating party's principles and bringing disrepute to party" as reasons for expelling him from the primary membership of the party.
Mr K Malaisamy, a retired IAS Officer was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999 and at the end of his term nominated to the Rajya Sabha inn 2004.
Party cadre justify Ms Jayalalithaa's action. Many say alliance issue is a policy decision of the party and the party's General Secretary alone can talk about it. Some say through his statement the self-styled spokesperson has betrayed Ms Jayalalithaa's Prime Ministerial ambitions and diluted her bargaining power with potential allies. Mr Kumar a party functionary told NDTV, "In our party only Amma can speak, nobody can speak. When someone violates party discipline publicity this is what would happen".
But analysts are not surprised by Ms Jayalithaa'a actions. Many point out that the she has reshuffled her cabinet 13 times over the last three years, dropping several Ministers and reinstating some. She has also dropped candidates after they were formally announced. The Chief Minister they say made things hard for some bureaucrats as well including DGP rank IPS Officer Ms Archana Ramasundaram and another IPS Officer Ms Sathya Priya. Even the Assembly Speaker Mr Jayakumar was shown the door, with no reasons made public. Mr G C Shekar, Associate Editor, The Telegraph says "Jayalalithaa has been a dictatorial politician. There are no two opinions about that. Everyone knows in AIADMK everything starts with Jayalalithaa and ends with Jayalalithaa. Even the so called meetings she chairs are only for the sake of EC norms and public consumption, but she makes her own decisions.
The politician at the receiving end, Mr Malaisamy himself was inaccessible for his comments the whole day.
Call it Ms Jayalalithaa's discipline or dictatorship, clearly she's keeping the cards close to her chest till the numbers are officially out, be it for her Prime Ministerial ambition or supporting the new government.