On Saturday morning when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa left her Poes Garden bungalow in Chennai to fly to Bangalore for the verdict in her disproportionate assets case, she had all the trappings of office surrounding her: Red beacon; pilot cars all around; heavy security; and the office of the state chief ministership all around her.
By the afternoon, it was all gone. The special court, 18 years after the case was registered by Dr Subramanian Swamy, pronounced Jayalalithaa guilty of corruption.
The court sentenced her to 4 years in jail, a hefty Rs 100 (Rs 1 billion) crore fine, and she stands disqualified for 10 years. She cannot contest an election or become an MLA.
By the evening she was taken to the central jail in Bangalore for a medical check up. Along with her, her trusted aide Sasikala Natarajan and three others have also been convicted and sentenced.
Jayalalithaa becomes the first chief minister to be convicted in a corruption case and after Parliament passed the new law on corruption.
A person is disqualified from contesting election if s/he is sentenced to more than two years in prison.
As she has been sentenced to 4 years in prison, her disqualification period begins after that for 6 years, totaling the next 10 years of her life, which may indicate that her legislative career in politics is over for the time being.
Jayalalithaa is the undisputed leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a party where there are no number twos or anyone of any significance. Her word is the law in the AIADMK.
State Finance Minister O Paneersalvam may replace her as chief minister though Jayalalalithaa has not sent her resignation to the Tamil Nadu governor at the time of filing this report.
DMK leader M Karunanidhi, when he was chief minister, gathered the evidence against Jayalalithaa and pursued the case. The charges are of amassing more than 2,000 acres of land, 30 kgs of gold, 12,000 sarees and other assets.
The DMK says it does not want President's Rule in the state, which indicates that Jalalithaa may be thinking of dissolving the state assembly and holding elections on the emotive issue of her imprisonment.
The Tamil Nadu assembly has two years of its tenure left and in that time political parties like the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party will try to revive their political fortunes. The DMK too will look to make a comeback in the huge vacuum left by Jayalalithaa from the political stage of Tamil Nadu politics.
Since the investigation has been monitored by the Supreme Court -- it was on the apex court's directions that a special court was set up in Karnataka and not in Tamil Nadu -- Jayalalithaa will have to approach the Karnataka high court for bail.
Another former chief minister jailed for corruption -- Om Parkash Chautala -- has not yet secured bail and continues to be imprisoned in Delhi's Tihar jail.
Legal luminaries say that even if her imprisonment is later set aside and she comes out on bail, her conviction cannot be set aside. From the moment the judge signed the order she ceased to be chief minister since she stands disqualified.
Jayalalithaa's conviction is a game changer for Tamil Nadu and the repercussions of the judgment will change the state's politics for a long time to come.
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