Sasikala's letters to the President, the PM and Rahul Gandhi bear the address of Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence.
V K Sasikala, who is soon likely to be appointed general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Kazagham, has thanked President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi for personally paying their condolences on the death of AIADMK supremo and then Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
In separate letters to the three leaders, Sasikala said their visits 'overwhelm' her.
Copies of the three letters, dated December 18, were released to the media by the AIADMK headquarters on Tuesday.
'It was extremely kind of you Sir, to have visited Chennai and paid your condolences to me personally,' 'Chinamma' -- as Sasikala is known to AIADMK cadres -- said in her letter to the President.
'I was given to understand that Your Excellency's journey to Chennai was a little arduous because of some flight problem; but you were undeterred. Your visit has brought great consolation to me at a personal level and to the millions of Tamil masses and the people in the rest of the country,' she said.
In her letter to Modi, she described as a 'noble gesture' the prime minister expressing his condolences to her.
Modi spent a few minutes with an emotional Sasikala, consoling her by placing his hand on her head.
'Your visit brought great consolation to me in my moment of personal sorrow and to the millions of masses of Tamil Nadu. It was extremely kind of you to have come down to Chennai for sharing with me a few moments on the tragic occasion,' she said.
Sasikala expressed 'many thanks' for Modi's visit and his expression of sympathy to the people of the state and to her personally, 'in our moment of inexplicable grief and sorrow.'
She also thanked Rahul Gandhi, saying it was 'extremely kind' of him to have flown down to Chennai to pay his last respects to Jayalalithaa.
'Your words of sympathy to me, in my hour of personal grief, overwhelmed me in everyway,' she told Gandhi, who was also present when Jayalalithaa was laid to rest at Marina Beach in Chennai.
The letters were written on Sasikala's letterhead, with Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence listed as her address.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with V K Sasikala at Rajaji Hall in Chennai, December 6, 2016. Photograph: PTI Photo
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