VK Sasikala, who was the close confidante of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, has begun her game against the current ADMK leaders to gain control of the party, nearly ten days after she arrived in Chennai after completing the four-year prison sentence in Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru. 

Putting ADMK leaders Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam into a deep shock, expelled ADMK General Secretary Sasikala has approached a court in Chennai and moved her petition of challenging her removal as the General Secretary of the party in 2017. The development of launching a legal strike against the current ADMK leaders to claim the leadership of the party has come when the state is months ahead of the assembly polls and days after Prime Minister Modi's visit to Chennai during which he displayed that the two current leaders will be leading the party. 

Sasikala's petition was originally moved before the Madras High Court, but the plea was transferred to a civil court after the jurisdiction of the civil court has been increased. In the petition of challenging her removal from the ADMK as the General Secretary, Sasikala and TTV Dhinkaran are petitioners while the respondents include ADMK's Presidium Chairman Madhusudanan, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam, and former ADMK minister Semmalai. 

According to reports, the court has accepted her petition and the hearing of her plea has been listed for March 15. Sasikala was released from prison on January 27 after she completed her prison sentence. She was hospitalized in Bengaluru after she tested positive for COVID-19 and she arrived in Chennai on February 9 amid a rousing welcome from her supporters and party members. The massive roadshow offered to her had shocked the ADMK leaders when they worked to contain her entry into the party. 

Sasikala's supporters had offered a huge welcome from Bangalore to Chennai and while addressing her supporters at one point during a 23-hour long journey, Sasikala asserted that she will definitely plunge into active politics. Her statement and her travel in the car with an ADMK flag in its bonnet, Sasikala had sent a strong message to the ADMK leaders that she is ready for the battle to take over the party ahead of the assembly polls. 

Sasikala had reached Chennai in the wee hours of February 9 and she straightly visited ADMK Founder MGR's residence in the city and paid tribute to the towering leader. Through visiting MGR's house with the ADMK flag, Sasikala had displayed that she can't be separated and removed from the ADMK party. Sasikala has been staying in T Nagar, Chennai, and amid strong speculations on what she will do next, Sasikala has now launched a legal strike against the ADMK party and challenged the party's decision of her removing as the ADMK General Secretary. 

Sasikala was made General Secretary of the party after the demise of the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who died in December 2016. Sasikala's elevation after Jayalalithaa's demise had drifted the party after Panneerselvam had revolted against the rise of Sasikala. When she neared to become the next Chief Minister, the Supreme Court had convicted her in the Disproportionate Assets case in which Jayalalithaa was the first accused. She went to prison in February 2017 by nominating Edappadi Palaniswami as the Chief Minister. 

Months after she went to prison, Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had united and merged their factions as one party. In September 2017, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had taken the control of the party by expelling Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran from the party following which the latter started a new political party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam to rival against the ADMK. As Sasikala has now been released, she has begun her game of reclaiming the leadership of the party by becoming general secretary ahead of the assembly polls.