Days after acquiring bail from incarceration in connection to the cheating case, former ADMK Minister KT Rajenthra Bhalaji is in the midst of boosters from his fellow partymen and his former cabinet colleagues. Rajenthra Bhalaji is a popular political figure in Tamil Nadu and has become the first former ADMK Minister to get arrested after the party lost power in the 2021 state assembly polls.

Though several former ADMK Ministers had faced raids over the corruption allegations, Rajenthra Bhalaji got arrested earlier this month and was remanded in the Central prison in Trichy. Rajenthra Bhalaji had served as the Minister for Dairy Development in the previous ADMK regime led by Edappadi Palaniswami and he was arrested based on the complaints which alleged that he had cheated and swindled the money to the tune of Rs 3 crore by issuing fake promises of providing government jobs.

The case was registered last November and his anticipatory bail was rejected by the Madras High Court last December, following which he had gone absconding. After episodes of an intense manhunt, the special team of Tamil Nadu Police had arrested the former minister in Hasan, Karnataka on January 5, 2022. While he was lodged in the prison in Trichy, his bail petition, which he appealed, came to the hearing in the Supreme Court. During the trial, the apex court has grilled the Tamil Nadu government over the arrest, which relieved Rajenthra Bhalaji.

A week after he was locked in the prison, the former minister had got four-week interim bail on January 12 from the apex court with several conditions. By barring Rajenthra Bhalaji for any overseas travel, the top court has ordered the former minister to produce his passport. He was also directed to oblige to the investigation into the cheating case. With the bail, Rajenthra Bhalaji has arrived at his residence in Tiruthangal, Virudhunagar district.

Following his release, former ADMK Ministers and partymen have been meeting Rajenthra Bhalaji at his residence and providing a political boost and expressing their solidarity to him. According to our sources, several senior ADMK leaders have met Rajenthra Bhalaji and solaced him after the incarceration. When Rajenthra Bhalaji has organized an event at his residence recently for celebrating MG Ramachandran's (MGR) 105th birth anniversary, senior leaders arrived at his residence.  

Our sources say that senior leaders including five former ministers Thangamani, SP Velumani, RB Udhayakumar, CV Shanmugam, Mofoi Pandiarajan and several ADMK MLAs had met Rajenthra Bhalaji on Monday - January 17. The meeting with the former ADMK Ministers had lasted for over an hour. When asked about what was discussed during the meeting, the ADMK cadres had said the ADMK leaders inquired Rajenthra Bhalaji about his prison experience and how the police had treated him. 

The talks were general and didn't have the discussion of VK Sasikala's induction into the party as it was not a covert meeting. When the media persons had asked Rajenthra Bhalaji to speak a few words after the meeting, he had refused and the other former ADMK Ministers had also rejected to speak to the media and vacated his residence.