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'Chinna MGR' ready for the big time

N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai

There is a small crowd waiting at Madras' Egmore railway station, unmindful of the mild morning dew. Some people are carrying huge garlands, others hold crowns made of flowers. As the train chugs in, shouts of 'chinna MGR vazhga' (long live younger MGR) rent the air. A man in mid-thirties comes out of the train and everybody rushes in to garland him. A crown is quickly placed on his head.

"That's an interesting sight," muses Edward Strong, an American tourist waiting for another train on the platform. "I have seen people offering crowns to political leaders and religious heads here. Is he a leader or a preacher?

This is one question that V N Sudhakaran is likely to be asked frequently in the coming years as he freely mixes religion with politics in preparation for a career in public life.

For those of you wondering who is Sudhakaran and why should anybody be bothered if he wants to make a career in politics, here is a piece of information: Sudhakaran is the foster son of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha. He was the bridegroom at the famed Madras wedding in 1995 that landed Jayalalitha in trouble with the taxman. And he is now ready to come out of his mother's shadow.

Not everyone in the state has taken kindly to Sudhakaran's ambition. "Politics has become a joke, and so has religion," said Alamelu Ammal, an old Brahmin woman, as she alighted from the same train.

"He calls himself 'chinna MGR', but what has he got to do with MGR to adopt his name?" she asked. "MGR used religion, but he was discreet. He went to the Kollur Mookambigai temple in Karnataka, but it was a quiet affair.''

She may have a point. The reception that awaited Sudhakaran at Egmore does not befit a yatri returning from a pada yatra to Palani, the hill abode of Lord Karthikeya in the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu.

Sudhakaran, in fact, has made an annual extravaganza of this pada-yatra. While for record he has been told by his astrologers to take the pada yatra, insiders say that the brain behind this image-building exercise is his uncle M Natarajan, Sasikala's husband.

Credit should go to Sudhakaran for re-introducing the large cut-outs of the Jayalalitha era in the state. According to reports reaching here, the road from Karaikudi till Palani was strewn with Sudhakaran's cut-outs. It took 'chinna MGR' 10 days to complete the yatra, against three or four days that it takes other pilgrims.

And Sudhakaran is not concentrating on Palani alone. Wherever religious functions are held and wherever the organisers accept him as the chief guest with the attendant honours, he is there. The organisers, of course, get a fat donation.

"It's all in preparation for Sudhakaran's entry into politics. We are waiting for the right time," said a close associate.

The hope is that any split in the All India ADMK, in the aftermath of an adverse verdict in any one of the corruption cases pending against Jayalalitha, would be the right time. ''The idea is to capture the party, and convert it into a vehicle for his coming to power," he added.

Isn't it a wild goose chase? "Not really," said the aide. "Did anyone think that Jayalalitha would be such a big hit in politics when MGR made her the AIADMK's propaganda secretary, or even when she split the party after his death? It was possible only because of her association with MGR. And we are trying to create a similar aura in Sudhakaran's case too.''

With the Thevars (Sudhakaran is a Thevar) forming a large chunk of the state's population and their complete faith in AIADMK, the idea is to shift this community-support in Sudhakaran's favour.

"We know, we have to wait...age is on Sudhakaran's side," said the aide.

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