Thrilling chase of AIADMK's missing MLAs and where we found them
"The outcome of AIADMK's MLA meeting was to ascertain our support for Chinnamma once again," was what state education minister K Pandiarajan said before he entered the venue of the meeting.
But the reality was more twisted and, in fact, comical.
The purported AIADMK MLA meeting began by 11.30 am with 128 members of 134, excluding O Panneerselvam and some MLAs who support him.
According to the official version, party general secretary Sasikala spoke for 11 minutes and questioned the members regarding all that had happened in the past 48 hours, and indirectly warned them against backing traitors.
But what did happen in the past 48 hours!? Well, Tamil Nadu saw a team of doctors from Apollo Hospitals hold a press meet to clear the air on Jayalalithaa's death, only to be followed the next day by a press meet by former AIADMK Assembly speaker PH Pandian and his son Manoj Pandian. They levelled serious charges against the late AIADMK chief's long-time confidante Sasikala, saying that she did not take proper care of Amma during her illness.
But the highlight of that day was Panneerselvam's unexpected visit to the Jayalalithaa Memorial, where he conducted 30 minutes of dhyan, and a press meet where he said Jayalalithaa had made the right choice by choosing him to be the CM.
Coming back to the AIADMK MLA meeting, it ended in an hour's time and the crowd began to disperse.
Reluctant to leave the place, we waited for a while. To our astonishment, we saw two giant tourist buses parked on a small lane leading to the HQ and that too on the wrong side of the road. We rightly presumed that it was for AIADMK use only.
By that time, word had broken out that Sasikala had instructed the MLAs to stay in Chennai until they had met the governor to prove the majority of the Chinnamma camp. Adding this to inputs from a source, it was determined that the MLAs were to be taken to a hotel and kept under watch, until the power transition (to Sasikala) was over.
Things took a different turn, however, when some AIADMK leaders decided to take the MLAs in a "herd" to New Delhi to persuade the President to choose their Chinnamma as CM.
So the buses and the MLAs became a priority once again. The entire media network formed a search party to track them. Sources from the local police and at the airport were repeatedly called for inputs. And as more inputs were got, chaos brewed.
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| The late Jayalalithaa with O Panneerselvam. (Photo: India Today) |
My team, after talking to the above sources, determined one thing - the "herding" of the MLAs was not to meet the President but to keep them from defecting to OPS's side. But it was too late as nobody had tracked the bus which left from the AIADMK HQ 30 minutes ago.
The possibilities were narrowed down to two. Either believe the AIADMK source and keep an eye on the hotels near the airport, like Trident and Radisson, where the MLAs were allegedly being housed so they could be conveniently moved for the morning flight, or believe the source who claimed the buses were being rerouted to a resort near Mahabalipuram. Either way, our media team would have had to travel 40 km, battling traffic.
As we decided to move out of the AIADMK HQ, a giant APR Travels tour bus drove in and parked a few feet away from the building. Curiously, I approached the man who had exited the bus to speak on his phone.
"Where should I come? Greams Road?" he yelled at his phone, luckily for my benefit. "What, no! It's Greenways Road," the man on the other end yelled back. It was the only bit of information I needed.
Greenways Road is where the ministers' quarters are located. The man from the bus, however, refused to confirm to us where he was heading to.
I rushed to my car along with my video journalist Shiv Prashanth and started a really slow chase to find the democratically chosen, unofficially "missing" MLAs of AIADMK.
Again, to our luck, the bus was from Bangalore and the driver did not know anything about Chennai. So the chase was slow, as he had to read all the sign boards, ask people for directions before taking a turn and also watch out for trees to avoid any scratches on the huge bus.
By this time, we were close on the bus's tail and, to avoid suspicion, I asked my cab driver to overtake the bus and park the car a little ahead of it. We did so and stopped, hoping to see the bus pass next to us. Well, that didn't happen.
Instead, the huge bus pulled over alongside us and the driver's helper knocked on our window.
We were preparing an explanation to why we were following them, but instead the helper asked: "Anna, where is Greamsway Road?" Muneer, the cab driver, pulled himself together and asked: "Greenways Road or Greams Road?"
"I don't know, I'm from Bangalore. They said it is where the ministers' quarters are," said the helper, not noticing the way we were giggling.
We gave him the directions and he left, thanking us. We continued the slow chase again, finally seeing the bus take a turn to the quarters of Tamil Nadu's ministers.
To confirm my assumption, we travelled half a kilometre on the road, till we reached a dead-end. The news was confirmed - we found the "herd" of ministers penned inside ministers Edapadi Palanisamy and MR Vijaybhaskar's houses.
The whole area outside the ministers' residence was jampacked with Innovas carrying the government emblem or the VIP siren.
Though we had found the MLAs, we couldn't record anything on camera as the area was buzzing with aides of leaders.
All we could get, from cameraperson Shiv Prashanth's trusted iPhone 6s, were some clips of the surroundings and they were uploaded immediately.
As we left the place to follow another story, we could see a large number of media personnel present, with their OB live source parked nearby - we realised that the lane led to Panneerselvam's house!
We also realised how smartly the AIADMK had acted by keeping the MLAs right under OPS's nose.
Astonished by AIADMK's foolproof plan, we soon left the spot as more and more people assembled there.