CHENNAI: Having lost Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV to the Mannargudi family, the AIADMK led by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and his deputy O. Panneerselvam will finally have its own newspaper — Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma — beginning Saturday. Namadhu MGR, launched by J Jayalalithaa to air her views following the death of her mentor M.G. Ramachandran in the late 1980s, went on to become the official propaganda arm of the AIADMK till her death in 2016. Jaya TV, launched in 1999, was also an integral part of Jayalalithaa's publicity arm.
However, both the organisations went to the control of V. K. Sasikala family after the AIADMK split into two factions — one led by EPS-OPS and the other led by TTV Dhinakaran - leaving the party bereft of any mouthpiece. Panneerselvam and Palaniswami took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce the launch of Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma on Saturday with the logo of the newspaper. The AIADMK had in January decided to launch a newspaper that would function as its mouthpiece.
The newspaper, which will hit the stands on Saturday, will be edited by party spokesperson Marudhu Azhaguraj, who was removed as editor of Namadhu MGR by the Sasikala family in August last year. Unlike Namadhu MGR, Namadhu Puratchi Thalaivi Amma will be published from major cities in the state. Namadhu MGR is published only from Chennai.
The move to launch the newspaper and a television channel, which is in works, was taken after Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV began blacking out news relating to the AIADMK Government since August 2017. Jaya TV was almost an extension of the AIADMK that carried news only related to Jayalalithaa and the party since its inception in 1999. When Jayalalithaa was the Chief Minister, she occasionally went live on Jaya TV to make announcements relating to her government, giving it a semi-official status.
