IMAGE: M Karunanidhi with Tamil matinee idol M G Ramachandran. Jayalalithaa also increasingly wooed the Congress under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi as an ally, leaving the DMK out in the cold. Irrespective of what the truth was, the people of Tamil Nadu chose to believe a wounded woman. Outside, to waiting media persons, Jayalalithaa swore that she would never set foot again in the Tamil Nadu assembly until it was a safe place for women. In the melee that ensued, a weeping Jayalalithaa was bodily lifted by her party members and taken out to safety, her hair and clothes in disarray. The AIADMK version is that DMK MLAs began to attack the Opposition.ĭuraimurugan became infamous, subsequently, for allegedly yanking at and tearing Jayalalithaa's saree. The DMK version is that Jayalalithaa screamed out, asking MLA Sengottaiyan to attack Karunanidhi.
What happened next depends on whose version is taken into account. Jayalalithaa, in the Opposition, heckled him, continually interrupting him and preventing him from going ahead. Karunanidhi, as chief minister, also held the finance portfolio and had begun to read out the budget speech. It was an ugly event on Mawhen Karunanidhi and his DMK would find that Jayalalithaa was a force to reckon with. On several occasions, she even outdid them. Jayalalithaa turned out to be a skilled administrator and a political tactician who honed what she had learnt from her mentor MGR as also from her bitterest foe Karunanidhi. This was the second time in Karunanidhi's political career that he would severely underestimate an opponent. Those close to him say that he mocked her, wondering how she could ever pose a challenge to him. In 1989, when it became clear that Jayalalithaa would take over MGR's mantle, Karunanidhi is said to have dismissed her as someone with no idea of Dravidian politics or ideology. "It began when MGR was still in the DMK and he asked Kalaignar to allow Jayalalithaa to speak at a Madurai rally of the DMK. "Jayalalithaa hated Kalaignar," says ( DMK MLA) Duraimurugan, who has watched the battles between both at close quarters. If MGR and Karuna had a love-hate relationship, it was hatred from the word go between Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, especially on the latter's part.
IMAGE: Sivaji Ganesan, M Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalitha in happier times.
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