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Jayalalithaa ‘arrests’ coup plan

The opposition leaders planned to dislodge the government by poaching AIADMK MLAs, the sources add.

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The recent arrest of Natarajan, Sasikala’s husband, was a preemptive move by Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa against the opposition’s attempt to bring down her government, intelligence sources in Chennai say. The opposition leaders planned to dislodge the government by poaching AIADMK MLAs, the sources add.

“Efforts were being made by Natarajan, leader of the opposition in the assembly Vijayakant and DMK leader MK Stalin to make AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Sasikala-led Mannargudi Mafia defect to their camp. If they succeed in poaching 35 MLAs from the AIADMK, Jayalalithaa would lose majority in the House,” a senior official told DNA.

In the 234-member assembly, the AIADMK has strength of 148. The combined opposition — the DMDK, the DMK, the Left and other fringe parties — has 86 members. “They need just 32 MLAs to touch 118, the figure for majority. It is an open secret that nearly 70 AIADMK MLAs owe their positions to the Sasikala clan. It is not a difficult job for the opposition to get the required numbers,” said a political observer in Chennai.

Legal experts belonging to the DMK and DMDK camp are also burning midnight oil to find out how they can circumvent the anti-defection law, which stipulates that at least one third of the party MLAs have to come out of the AIADMK fold so that they do not get disqualified from the House.

The move comes immediately after Stalin and Vijayakant decided to unite against Jayalalithaa. Though Vijayakant was an ally of Jayalalithaa during the 2011 assembly election, it was an uneasy relationship. It was known then itself that Vijayakant would leave the fold after the polls.

Stalin considers this to be the right moment for him to strike at the AIADMK and walk away with the chief ministership. If he allows the Jayalalithaa administration to continue for the next five years, there is no guarantee that he may get the top post even if the DMK wins the next assembly election.

There are two more contenders for the post in the DMK — Elder brother MK Alagiri and step sister Kanimozhi.

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