“I will issue orders to turn it into a memorial for Jayalalthaa,” said O Panneerselvam launching a stinging attack against Sasikala on Thursday.

Veda Nilayam, the house that late chief minister J Jayalalithaa lived in at Poes Gardens, has become a political weapon that Chief Minister Panneerselvam has used against VK Sasikala announcing that he will turn it into Amma memorial.

Addressing the media at his residence on Thursday, OPS as the Chief Minister is fondly known said things will be set in motion to evict Sasikala from the house she has occupied after Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5 last year.

Sasikala has submitted a false will of Jayalalithaa and soon she will be evicted from the Veda Nilayam he said to the cheers of growing number of supporters outside his house. In fact, there were demands from several cadres that the house be turned into Jayalalithaa memorial, something that Sasikala and her supporters have dismissed.

Her supporters claim that Veda Nilayam was not a government property but a private property and that they would challenge it in the court if such a thing was to be attempted.

Meanwhile, Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakaumar said that as a blood relative she had claim on the house and that she would make it too. Of course these are not priority for me, but Sasikala has no right over the house and she has usurped it like the party.

The value of the house can be anything close to Rs 90 crore, according to real estate sources. More than the land value, it is the iconic status of the house as one occupied by a towering personality that will fetch it a much, much higher price than the market commands, said a real estate developer.

Just take a look at the specifications: it is a 24,000 sq feet bungalow located in posh Poes Gardens residential localty.

Being class II heirs of Jayalalithaa, her nephew and niece could stake claim to a share of the property

Panneerselvam said he will issue orders to convert Poes Garden into her memorial.

Jayalalithaa had bought the house in 1967. It was much later, when she was the propaganda secretary of AIADMK that Jayalalithaa got introduced to Sasikala and later on they became good friends. Sasikala moved in to live with Jayalalithaa at Poes Gardens in 1990. She was thrown out in 2011 for a brief while and was taken back later after she apologized and promised never to enter politics or aspire for any political post.

But events after Jayalalithaa’s death are in the public domain. Panneerselvam reminded the people of the promise Sasikala made and said now she had not only become general secretary but also wanted to grab the Chief Minister’s post.