Sasikala launches political party, unveils flag

During a public meeting in Kamuthi on Tuesday (February 24, 2026) to mark the birth anniversary of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, her aide V.K. Sasikala announced her decision to launch a political party. She unveiled the party’s flag — featuring black, white, and red — which carries the portraits of former Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), and Jayalalithaa.

Addressing the gathering, Ms. Sasikala, who cannot contest the upcoming Assembly elections due to her disqualification under the Representation of People Act owing to her conviction in a corruption case, said her soon-to-be named party would follow the Dravidian path established by these three leaders. “The party would champion the cause of the poor and marginalised while eliminating both enemies and traitors,” she added.

She claimed she was returning to active politics as remaining silent any longer would be a betrayal to the people of Tamil Nadu and her party workers.

She took an indirect jab at former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, saying she did not even wish to utter the name of the person who had “betrayed her” after coming to power.

“I am the person who was by Amma’s (Jayalalitha) side, witnessing everything — the good and the bad. We were in the hospital for 72 days. We were even prepared to bring her back home on an auspicious day. But, in a way no one expected, she suddenly suffered a heart attack,” she said.

“Yet look at the stories people on the outside fabricated. They even went as far as saying that I was the one who killed her,” Ms. Sasikala said.

She claimed during her incarceration in Bengaluru, several AIADMK ministers pressured her to move to a Chennai prison. She declined and wondered if she would have been alive had she agreed to the transfer.

“I am telling the people of Tamil Nadu today what I haven’t revealed before. While I was in jail, Palaniswami troubled me daily. When the Bengaluru court granted me 15 days of parole to see my ailing husband, Palaniswami, as CM, allowed only 5 days with strict conditions,” she claimed.

“I could not meet even relatives or the press, and I couldn’t stay at Poes Garden. Even when my husband died, the Palaniswami government gave me only 10 days instead of 16 to perform the rituals. Palaniswami is a man who stabbed the very person who seated him in power, both in the back and the face with a spear,” she said.