I am a slave to the people of Tamil Nadu: V K Sasikala to enter active politics

Chennai, Feb 08: V K Sasikala, close aide of former CM J Jayalalithaa, on Monday addressed her supporters for the first time after her release from prison and said she is going to engage in serious politics, cementing the ruling AIADMK's fears.

"I am a slave to love," she said on Monday evening. "I am a slave to the people and volunteers of Tamil Nadu. I will meet you all soon and will enter full-fledged politics."

"I am bound by love, to the Tamil ethos and the principles I have embarked upon. But I can never be enslaved by oppression," she told her loyalists. Earlier, she returned to Tamil Nadu to a grand reception, days after completing her jail term in Bengaluru in the Rs 66.6 crore disproportionate assets case, amid indications of a confrontation with the ruling party which she once controlled. Asked by reporters about the AIADMK ministers filing police complaint against her use of the ruling party flag on her car, she said "I think it shows their apprehension." Responding to late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's memorial in Chennai being closed for maintenance, she said "the people of Tamil Nadu know very well what all this means."

Sasikala, a close aide of J Jayalalithaa, returned to Tamil Nadu for the first time since her release on January 27 after a four-year jail term for corruption. Till now, she had been in Bengaluru, where she was treated for Covid.