Sasikala's confession is Jayalalithaa's success

Estranged confidante Sasikala’s tearful confession in the Bengaluru special court that she had run the businesses while chief minister J. Jayalalithaa was only a dormant partner is a major gain for the AIADMK chief even as the long-drawn legal tangle seems heading towards an interesting finale.

There is discernible relief among the ruling party members that Sasikala, banished from their leader’s Poes Garden bungalow and expelled from the party mid-December, has now ‘come clean’ and admitted to having run those businesses figuring in the disproportionate wealth case — meaning that ‘dormant partner’ Jayalalithaa was not responsible for any misdemeanors found in those firms.

Some legal pundits could still argue that Sasikala’s admission has no bearing on the case since there are other witnesses and loads of documentary evidence that special prosecutor Acharya has under his command.

Nevertheless, the Saturday confession has substantial personal and political significance for the chief minister. This is particularly so since some doomsday pundits have been talking about the ex-confidante pointing the accusing finger at Jayalalithaa in the court if only to hit back for being booted out. Such a development would most certainly have been a major embarrassment.

It is premature to guess the impact of Sasikala’s confession on the mind of the special court at this point of time. The co-accused has only answered 40 questions out of some 1,000 framed by the prosecution for her and the process could go on for a few more sittings — the next one is slated for February 23.

But if seen through the prism of police actions in recent days, her Saturday admission could be flagged by any intelligent lawyer as a statement of substantial significance and one reaffirming what Jayalalithaa has been saying — that she had only been a ‘dormant partner’ in those joint businesses and was not involved in their administration.

The series of arrests of the Sasikala kin — the latest being that of her husband Mr M Natarajan within a couple of hours of her Bengaluru court session — could only add strength to the argument of the chief minister’s loyalists that the Mannargudi ‘family’ had enjoyed substantial pecuniary and other gains by misusing proximity to Poes Garden.

Jayalalithaa had started the cleaning-up by expelling her friend of 25-plus years and the latter has now justified that through her court confession now.