M Natarajan – a man who claimed to be kingmaker but remained a political nonentity

CHENNAI: Had it not been for his marriage to V K Sasikala and she, in turn, growing to be a close aide to former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa, the 74-year-old Maruthappa Natarajan would have passed away as yet another retired state government employee with a fleeting political dalliance. But, that was not to be.
Natarajan, who died in Chennai on Tuesday morning at the age of 74, had played a role, silent nevertheless, in his wife getting closer to Jayalalithaa and emerging stronger and once there, to not only control the AIADMK, but also the state administration from behind the scene.
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In a way, had he not become a state government employee, chances were that Natarajan could have well emerged as a Dravidian leader, having come to limelight in the 1965 anti-Hindi agitation. He played a key role in the students’ protests in Thanjavur by galvanising students and was closely associated with DMK's then young leader L Ganesan, who eventually facilitated Natarajan's marriage with Sasikala. "I was the one who saw the bride for MN (Natarajan) and arranged his marriage. It was DMK leader M Karunanidhi who presided over the wedding," Ganesan told TOI.
An ardent Tamil lover, the anti-Hindi agitation brought him closer to Karunanidhi and that helped him get into the government service as an assistant public relations officer in 1970-71. He had remained close to Karunanidhi until they fell out over a minor ‘posting’ issue.
But, luck came his way in early 80s when Jayalalithaa, as part of her induction process as propaganda secretary of the AIADMK, came to Cuddalore, where Chandralekha was the district collector and Natarajan the PRO. His wife, Sasikala, got the contract to video record the event. Within a few years, the couple was very well ensconced in Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence from where they jointly witnessed several upheavals including the death of former chief minister M G Ramachandran (MGR), the split of the AIADMK and the 1989 assembly polls that saw the DMK triumphantly return to power after a gap of 14 years.
After a long political oblivion, Natarajan emerged from the shadows, after Jayalalithaa’s death on December 5, 2016, to claim he had politically ‘groomed and mentored’ her. For a brief while, Natarajan appeared to have got into the thick of political turmoil in the AIADMK post-Jayalalithaa until he fell ill in September last year.
If not for Natarajan, Jayalalithaa would not have remained in politics, says Tharasu Shyam, referring to her resignation letter, addressed to the assembly speaker, seized by the state police from Natarajan’s residence. “It was he who worked for unifying the Jayalalithaa and Janaki factions of the party. Theirs was a love – hate relationship as she suspected that he will take over the party. He was never a member of the AIADMK, but has been expelled three times. He remained a strong willed person,” says Shyam.
“Natarajan was not politically active once he joined government service in the early 70s and not until MGR’s death. Since Sasikala had very little political knowledge, it turned out to Natarajan’s advantage. Even though he never came out in the open, his role was key in picking candidates for the Madurai East and Marungapuri bypolls that the united AIADMK fought in March 1989, after reclaiming the two leaves symbol,” says Trichy Velusamy, who was an early confidante of Jayalalithaa and had known Natarajan for long.
“It was MN (Natarajan) and I who played a key role in getting the DMK government dismissed, using our connections in Delhi. But within five months after coming to power in 1991, Jayalalithaa did not want us around,” says Velusamy.