File photo: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will move the Karnataka High Court tomorrow to seek bail and stay on her conviction in a corruption case, her advocates said today. Ms Jayalalithaa was convicted in the 18-year-old case, along with three close aides including Sasikala Natarajan, and sentenced to four years in prison by a Bangalore court yesterday.
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Lawmakers of her party AIADMK today chose O Panneerselvam to succeed Ms Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister. Mr Panneerselvam is a trusted loyalist of Ms Jayalalithaa.
O Panneerselvam or OPS, as he is called, also belongs to the Thevar community, which is a key vote-bank for the party. He was elevated to the position of chief minister in 2001 when she had to step down following her conviction in the Tansi land deal case; she was subsequently acquitted.
Ms Jayalalithaa will have to step down from her post as the Supreme Court ruled last year that a convicted lawmaker can't continue as Member of Parliament or Member of Legislative Assembly and shall be disqualified from office.
Ms Jayalalithaa's adviser Sheela Balakrishnan, along with her secretaries, flew to Bangalore this morning reportedly to meet the jailed former Chief Minister.
Ms Jayalalithaa had spent the night at a cell in the women's wing of the Bangalore Central Jail. As she has Z-plus security, the prison at Parapanna Agrahara on the city's outskirts has turned into a fortress.
An uneasy calm prevailed over Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu today, after sporadic incidents of violence broke out at several locations yesterday following the verdict. Buses had stopped plying on several routes and most shops and cinema halls had shut down. No major incidents have been reported today.
The Home Ministry has advised the Tamil Nadu administration to keep a strict vigil on the law and order situation, sources told NDTV. The ministry sent two directions on law and order to the state administration, one before the verdict and one after, they said.
Ministers and legislators who met Ms Jayalalithaa in jail say she has been suffering from acute pain in the knee, chest and stomach; she is also diabetic. The facilities in the prison are not adequate, they say, and efforts are being made to seek better facilities for her.
But sources told NDTV that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has refused any special treatment. According to police officials, she is being provided with the requisite medical attention by the prison doctor.
The case against Ms Jayalalithaa accuses her of misusing her first term as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu between 1991 and 1996 to collect assets that were vastly disproportionate to her income. Ms Jayalalithaa has denounced the case as political vendetta.
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