Jaya's sacked close aide back in AIADMK

Three months after expelling her from the party, AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today revoked the expulsion of estranged aide VK Sasikala, signalling a rapprochement between them.

Jayalalithaa's action comes close on the heels of Sasikala's explanation earlier this week expressing her unflinching loyalty to "Akka" (elder sister).

"VK Sasikala has sent a letter to me. She had also issued a statement with the same content. I accept the explanation," Jayalalithaa said in a brief statement here.

"The disciplinary action against Sasikala is cancelled," said Jayalalithaa, who had shunted her out of her Poes Garden residence.

In what was then seen as an effort to clean up AIADMK and refurbish her own image, Jayalalithaa had expelled Sasikala and 13 of her kin from the party in December last for allegedly acting as a parallel power centre and wielding extra-constitutional authority in the party and government.

This is the second time that Sasikala has fallen out of Jayalalithaa's favour and patched up. In 1996, Jayalalithaa removed Sasikala following the then Assembly poll debacle. They had, however, made amends days later.

Sasikala's return to the party became clear after she wrote a two-page letter to Jayalalithaa in which she said "what those claimed to be my friends and relatives have done against Akka is an unpardonable betrayal."

In the letter she had also said she had snapped ties with all those who had indulged in activities against Jayalalithaa.

Jayalalithaa today made it clear that barring Sasikala, her December 19 disciplinary action against M Natarajan, Sasikala's husband and some others, would continue.