Jayalalithaa’s Demise: Can Her Party Survive The Body Blow?

The dominant figure of Tamil Nadu politics has passed into history. Extraordinary woman, successfully populist leader and six-time Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa stepped into the big shoes of the iconic MGR when there were understandable apprehensions about whether she could fill them adequately.

But by combining movie-star charisma with undoubted intelligence and unquestioned political authority, she exceeded her mentor in political accomplishment.

It was an extraordinary sight to see senior male political leaders, including Cabinet ministers, prostrating themselves at her feet.

Also Read: Amma's Death Marks The End of a Phase in Dravidian Politics

Her party MPs in Parliament carried pictures of her in their shirtfront pockets, visible through the thin material; they did not make a speech or even ask a parliamentary question without an obligatory reference to their Puratchi Thalaivi Amma (revolutionary leader Amma).

The flip-side of this political dominance was an imperiousness and inaccessibility that was surprising in a popular democratic politician.

But Jayalalithaa more than made up for it by her welfare measures, visible in the form of the Amma canteens offering subsidised food to the poor, and handouts ranging from bags of rice to laptops for high-schoolers, all bearing her familiar visage.

Also Read: In Jayalalithaa's TN, It Is Sasikala's Family That Runs the State

She took welfarism to a new high (or low, depending on your political point of view) and won re-election in May 2016 despite her not-entirely effective handling of the Chennai floods a few months earlier, which contrasted with her previous administration's success in dealing with the tsunami of 2005.

The AIADMK was a party built entirely around her leadership; now that she is gone, she has left behind a void in Tamil Nadu politics, not least in her own party.

Also Read: Rise of Brand Amma: Chronicles of a Thespian and a Vibrant Leader

Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and speculation is understandably rife about what Jayalalithaa's passing portends for the political future of the state.

Can the AIADMK hold together?

Will the DMK return to the forefront of the Dravidian political movement?

Will someone currently outside the AIADMK join it to provide the charismatic leadership now lacking in its second rank?

Will the Congress, with its panoply of able senior leaders but a dwindling share of the popular vote, find an opportunity for revival in the state it ruled till 1967?

Today is a day of universal mourning and not of politics. But the answers to these questions will be sought in the next few months and years ahead in Tamil Nadu.

Amid the tragedy of the passing of a political colossus figure, it is apparent that we are living in interesting times.

(A former UN under-secretary-general, Shashi Tharoor is a Congress MP and an author. He can be reached at @ShashiTharoor.)