Panneerselvam, 19 Ministers Call on Jayalalithaa Amid Reports of Her Return as Chief Minister

CHENNAI: In a flurry of sudden activity, Chief Minister O Paneerselvam and 19 other Tamil Nadu ministers drove into AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence in Chennai this afternoon.The agenda of the meeting was not immediately clear, amid speculation that they could discuss modalities of Ms Jayalalithaa taking over as Chief Minister after the Karnataka High Court acquitted her in a corruption case this week.
Or then, her party’s next course of action, with political rivals alleging that the judge miscalculated Ms Jayalalithaa’s wealth in acquitting her.On Monday, the Karnataka High Court quashed Ms Jayalalithaa’s conviction and sentence of four years in prison by a trial court, and said she had been incorrectly charged with accumulating wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income during her first term as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
When she was convicted in September last year, Ms Jayalalithaa had to step down as chief minister as she was automatically disqualified as a lawmaker. Now, she can be chief minister again, and her exultant party has reportedly been looking for an auspicious date for her to be sworn in.
Mr Paneerselvam, handpicked by Ms Jayalalithaa to take her place last year, would resign any time to facilitate that takeover, sources said on Monday. Only a day after the verdict, however, the new controversy caused a pause in the AIADMK’s celebrations. The High Court judge Justice CR Kumaraswamy had said in his verdict that he based his decision to acquit Ms Jayalalithaa on a calculation of her assets that suggested that unaccounted wealth was about 8 per cent of her income, which was “within the permissible limit of 10 per cent”.
But the prosecution has claimed that Ms Jayalalithaa’s illegal wealth was miscalculated and far exceeds the limit. Opposition parties have cried foul and have requested the Karnataka government to appeal against the acquittal.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah said today that his government is examining it.