In a major development in Tamil Nadu, the adviser of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Sheela Balakrishnan, resigned late on Friday. Two other secretaries at the chief minister’s office, KN Venkataraman and A Ramalingam, were also asked to leave, besides Balakrishnan. All three bureaucrats were key aides of Jayalalithaa’s.
Sources told The News Minute that the new AIADMK general secretary, VK Sasikala, had reportedly asked Chief Minister O Panneerselvam to show Balakrishnan the door, though her tenure ends on March 31. Sasikala was also a longtime aide of Jayalalithaa’s, though her meteoric rise to the top of the party has raised many questions.
Balakrishnan had been credited with running the government while Jayalalithaa had been in hospital last year. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief had been in a Chennai hospital from the end of September until she died on December 5. Balakrishnan has been given key assignments by the former AIADMK leader, and has superseded her husband to become the state’s chief secretary in 2013.
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