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In the last five years, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary J Jayalalitha has fought a barrage of corruption charges and legal cases. She still continues to fight a dozen cases personally and two dozen cases involving her close associates and party men.
The corruption charges and legal hurdles, intriguingly, only helped Jayalalitha to whip up a sympathy wave among people across Tamil Nadu.
Now that she has conquered the electorate and become chief minister, the AIADMK headquarters on Lloyd's Road in Madras is abuzz with expectation that Amma will retaliate against her "political tormentor," the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Though Jayalalitha has been chief minister for just a week now, AIADMK leaders believe that "Amma" is busy preparing a dossier on corruption charges against former chief minister M Karunanidhi, his son and Madras Mayor M K Stalin and some of his council of ministers and DMK party leaders.
"There are many corrupt deals that Karunanidhi and his men are involved in that could send them to jail for the rest of his lives," says AIADMK Member of Parliament K K Kaliappan.
"It is not political vendetta. But just as Karunanidhi persecuted Amma, she will also ensure that the corruption heat is on the DMK," he added.
What are the corruption deals and misdeeds that the DMK president and his party leaders are involved in?
AIADMK leaders reveal that there are at least a dozen corruption cases that the Jayalalitha government will slap on the former DMK government and its party leaders.
The first and biggest stick that Jayalaltiha could strike Karunanidhi with will be on the latter's alleged links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Jayalalitha's point of argument this time is not based on the Jain Commission's inquiry report, which had accused the DMK president of harbouring strong links with the LTTE, but the Karunanidhi-LTTE-Veerappan nexus.
She has often accused Karunanidhi of soft-pedaling operations to catch the elusive sandalwood smuggler. She said the LTTE has been pumping in money and resources to Tamil militants who are helping Veerappan to stay safe in the forests. "Veerappan has not been caught because of Karunanidhi," says AIADMK legislator Ramanidharan.
Then there are also umpteen corruption charges against Karunanidhi, his relatives and party men that Jayalalitha's political and legal advisors are working on.
One of the priority cases concerns the DMK government's Uzhalvur Sandai project. The project was implemented to provide state-of -the-art facilities to farmers to market their wares in villages. But AIADMK leaders allege that Karunanidhi ensured that at least 30 DMK leaders benefited from the project by giving them exclusive rights to set up factories and ware-houses in the name of farmers.
The former DMK government is also accused of corruption in building 10 flyovers in Madras in the last five years. According to the AIADMK, Stalin amassed at least Rs 1,500 million by sanctioning the construction works to some select companies.
Jayalalitha is also likely to start investigations against three senior ministers in Karunanidhi's cabinet - K N Nehru, P Senguttuvan and Adiyur Selvaraj - for procuring copra from farmers at very low prices and selling them at high prices in the market.
A number of DMK leaders, former ministers and legislators have also been accused of various misdeeds and malpractices. For instance, former animal husbandry minister P Senguttuvan and a number of officials in the department are charged with malpractices in awarding tenders to pharmaceutical companies.
Union Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran is likely to face a case for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. Jayalalitha's political retribution is also likely to involve Maran's son Kalanidhi Maran, who owns Sun TV.
While Karunanidhi during his term in office ensured that Jayalalitha always remained on tenterhooks, it is now the latter's turn to unleash the corruption retaliation game.
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