Heads lowered, two senior Tamil Nadu ministers hesitantly walked into the Poes Garden bungalow of their Puratchi Thalaivi (Revolutionary Leader) this afternoon. They waited for an hour on the marble-floored verandah. Finally, they emerged from the huge iron gates looking even more disconsolate: Jayalalithaa had shut herself in a room and was not entertaining visitors, not even her own Cabinet colleagues. ‘‘We could not get an audience with Amma,’’ said one of the ministers. ‘‘She is monitoring election results on TV.’’ Their hour of agony has barely begun. With the AIADMK completely routed in all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu, heads may roll soon. Even Periyakulam constituency, which covers Jayalalithaa’s pocketborough Andipatti, was lost to the Congress. And the defeated candidate was none other than T.T.V. Dinakaran, nephew of Jayalalithaa’s close friend Sasikala. Like the ministers, AIADMK cadres were searching for reasons. The party headquarters was deserted. A handful of die-hard supporters wept and burst into torrents of abuse. This was aimed at the DMK, Congress and even the two lakh government employees dismissed by Jayalalithaa last year after they went on strike. Although the employees were later reinstated, AIADMK supporters swore they had taken revenge. ‘‘Government officials have cheated Amma,’’ sobbed 46-year-old K. Mala. Then she added: ‘‘I can’t go home. DMK cadres will ridicule me, Amma. I can’t bear it.’’ Her sister, R. Shanthi, said: ‘‘I could not cast my vote because my name was removed by the paavis (sinners).’’ No one was spared. Officials, rivals, even BJP and the party’s functionaries were held up as causes for defeat. Only Amma remained above reproach. ‘‘Some of the AIADMK’s workers voted against the party because some officials demanded bribes from them. Amma should remove such people from the party,’’ said Dakshinamurthy. Some party workers lay on the floor, exhausted. They were catching up on sleep. No such luxury for the ministers who will have to explain the rout to Amma. One of them practised his excuse: ‘‘An American engineer has demonstrated that by remote control, votes cast for BJP could be shifted to Congress. That’s probably happened across the country, especially in Tamil Nadu.’’ Even as he hoped his leader would buy this logic, she broke her silence in the evening. She issued a statement saying it was not a vote against her government but one for a change at the Centre. Not everyone was convinced. In the distance, one could hear DMK supporters celebrating. Meanwhile, former AP CM and senior Congress leader N. Janardhana Reddy on Thursday called on DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and appealed to him to reconsider his decision not to join a Congress-led government. However, MDMK leader Vaiko reiterated his party’s stand that it will not join the government.
