#notmycm cont'd

  With three slaps of her palm on Amma’s gravesite, Sasikala borrowed an ancient Tamilian
gesture in a promise to seek revenge.  Then, she packed for jail. Sasikala's week-long campaign to succeed Amma ended with her conviction for theft and a four-year sentence.

Perhaps Amma, the late Tamil Nadu chief minister whose dress and hairstyle Sasikala often copied, felt her pain. Had she been alive, she, too, would have been convicted by the Supreme Court, which overturned a lower court decision. The women (and two others) were found to have illegally amassed crores and crores worth of property, diamonds, gold, dozens of silk saris, 750 pairs of shoes, 44 air conditioners, 91 watches and a luxury bus.

Her conviction didn’t help Sasikala's opponent, OPS, who lacked the support in the Tamil Nadu legislature to replace Amma. Instead, Sasikala's pal, a pol named Palanaswami, was sworn in as CM. Tomorrow, he'll face a "floor test" in the legislature to see if he has the support to put off an election. If he remains CM, the word is that Sasikala will run TM from prison.

Of course, it's not over and the situation is complicated by the interests of rival parties, horse trading and who knows what. Opponents are competing to be the political (and in Sasikala's case, financial) heirs of Amma; nevermind that she was a crook. Hanging over this epic soap opera is the prospect of President's Rule, a move by the Feds imposed when a state's "constitutional machinery has failed" and it becomes impossible to form a new government. In that case, a new election will take place fairly soon.