On Saturday, the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam headquarters in Chennai was decked up to celebrate the 70th birth anniversary of their former leader, J Jayalalithaa. The party was set to unveil a newly created life-sized statue of the erstwhile chief minister who died in December 2016.
The statue was installed next to bronze sculpture of AIADMK leader MG Ramachandran.
Party workers erupted into cheers when they caught the first glimpses of the new statue, but their joy quickly turned into dismay: the sculpture bore little resemblance to their beloved Amma.
Over the next couple of days, the AIADMK was at the receiving end of a barrage of criticism, as party supporters (and detractors) complained about how little the statue looked like Jayalalithaa. In an attempt to salvage the situation, the party has decided to replace the statue.
Of course, social media users couldn’t be expected to pass up the opportunity to extract a good laugh from the situation. The guessing game of “Who’s that?” threw up some hilarious answers on Twitter.
Some suggested that the statue resembled VK Sasikala, the former aide of Jayalalithaa who was ousted from the party.
Some wondered if the statue resembled Valarmathi, one of the ministers in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet. Meanwhile, Kamal Haasan in the movie Chachi 420 was also among the top contenders.
Others felt that the statue resembled Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy’s wife, P Radha.
TTV Dhinakaran, rebel leader and Sasikala’s nephew, also had some things to say. “I don’t know whose amma’s statue it is. Is it the mother of EPS or OPS?” he quipped, referring to AIADMK leaders Edappadi Palanisamy and O Panneerselvam. “It is in no way close to Amma [Jayalalithaa].”
According to a report by The Times of India, the Andhra-based sculptor of the statue BSV Prasad was deeply hurt by the criticism of his work. The sculptor has offered to replace the statue with a new one, bearing all the additional expenses himself. He claimed to have been given just 20 days to complete the statue.
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