At noon on Monday, three white jeeps with tinted windows zoomed past the streets of Koovathur, a quiet village 80 km to the south of Chennai. A flock of goats scuttled out of the way as the cars, bearing black, white and red flags, swerved around the corner towards Golden Bay Resorts, a luxury beach stay at the end of the road.
This is where more than 120 of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s 135 legislators have been lodged since February 8, a day after Tamil Nadu’s caretaker Chief Minister O Panneerselvam revolted against party General Secretary VK Sasikala’s bid to take the reins of the state.
Two days after he resigned as chief minister, paving the way for the Sasikala’s elevation, OPS – as the AIADMK leader is known – claimed he had been forced to step down, in a dramatic late-night media address. Since then, Tamil Nadu has plunged into political turmoil, its ruling party split wide open and a tussle for power raging between factions led by Sasikala and OPS. Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that Sasikala’s elevation to the post of chief minister, which was earlier supposed to happen last week, hinges on the Supreme Court verdict on a disproportionate assets case against her, which is now expected on Tuesday.
While legislators and Parliamentarians have been trickling into OPS’ camp over the last week, Sasikala has tried to keep a tight grip on her faction of MLAs by visiting them regularly at the Golden Bay Resorts. Reports allege that the MLAs have been held captive at the resort to ensure they do not pledge their support to OPS, but Sasikala and her aides have denied this claim.
Consequently, the sleepy agricultural village of Koovathur has become the unlikely centre of Tamil Nadu’s political drama. As police vans and party cars continued to speed up and down the main road of Koovathur, bewildered residents of the village said they have never before seen so much activity on their streets.
Scores of journalists sat with their equipment at the corner of the road leading to the resort. Five men in white shirts and veshtis blocked the road, not letting media persons in. Earlier on Monday, reports said that journalists had been manhandled by security guards at the resort.
“Never has something like this happened in our village,” said R Bhoopalan, an elderly goatherd. “So many fast cars are going up and down the road. I am worried that my goats will be hit.”
Anxiety and fear
The constant activity in Koovathur over the past few days has made the villagers nervous and anxious. The influx of press vehicles, police vans and party cars has them worrying about their safety.
“The roads are usually so empty that our children play along them,” said M Kanchana, a daily wage labourer. “Now I am very scared of allowing my child to stray off alone. I haven’t gone to work for the past four days just to keep an eye on him.”
At first, the residents of Koovathur were puzzled and curious when they heard that the legislators had to the nearby resort. They gathered in large groups to see the AIADMK cars zip through their roads. But this curiosity soon turned into anxiety with a hint of fear.
“Behind each MLAs car was a van full of goons,” said M Sathya, the village president. “Some of them even had big sickles. Naturally, if these few people see such weapons they will feel scared, won’t they?”
The resort was located near the scheduled caste settlement of Koovathur, which comprised only 25 houses, most of which were made of sticks and straw. But despite their anxiety, these villagers have been supporting journalists by providing them food, water and even shelter during the day. On Sunday, the villagers gathered to scatter the goons who were blocking the path of the journalists on the way to the resort gates.
“It is because of the villagers that we have been able to report from here for so long,” said a journalist, who had been visiting the village since Thursday. “If we did not have their support, we would have been driven away long ago.”
Disillusioned with the party
Even though the Sasikala’s camp has inconvenienced villagers, many of them do not support OPS either. The MLA of the constituency that this village is a part of is from the Opposition DMK and many villagers said they did not want to concern themselves with AIADMK politics.
“There are so many legislators living on our bumpy road now, next to our thatched houses,” said Sathya. “Will they finally pay some attention to our plight?”
Sathya, now a DMK party worker, was once an avid AIADMK supporter. He even has the party’s symbol of two leaves tattooed to his arm. Another DMK supporter, Star Ezhumalai had the initials of former AIADMK head MG Ramachandran engraved on his arm. Both of them had switched over to the DMK along with a 100 other party workers two years ago. “We did not like our MLA and the other leaders,” said Ezhumalai.
Even some AIADMK supporters in Koovathur were confused about which camp to choose. Some said they would support former chief minister Jayalalithaa’s niece, Deepa, who announced in January that she would foray into politics. Others said they were disillusioned with the party after Jayalalithaa’s death on December 5 and did not want to support it anymore.
“We used to support the party when Jayalalithaa was alive because she did a lot of good work,” said H Haritha, a homemaker. “Now we do not know whether Panneerselvam or Sasikala will do a better job. We don’t want to vote for either of them. So now we aren’t bothered.”