How much can a traffic snarl cost? Wait, traffic snarls can be bought? No, that’s not what we meant. Let us rephrase: how much loss can a traffic snarl cause? Still sounds like a vague, hypothetical question, right? But what if we told you that one traffic jam cost a top politician the Chief Minister’s office and her party’s incumbency in a state? No, this isn’t a joke. And yes, it happened in India. While the traffic snarl wasn’t the only reason behind the neta’s downfall, many believe that day marked the beginning of the end of her regime.
It was 1992, and it had only been just a year since All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader J Jayalalithaa became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. It was her first tenure and also the first time that the party had come to power since its founder and incumbent CM, MG Ramachandran, passed away in 1987. Although the AIADMK alliance gained power by winning 225 out of the total 234 seats in the Assembly, thus reducing the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) alliance to just seven seats, Jayalalithaa’s popularity took a nosedive pretty soon.
And one of the most prominent people who was growing furious over her attitude was ‘Superstar’ Rajinikanth. According to his biography, The Name Is Rajinikanth, she was “living life queen-size”, not giving two hoots about the lives of the commoners. The book stated that roadblocks became far too common in Chennai during this time, making way for her convoy to pass through. Everything was going according to her commands, until one day, the ‘Superstar’ was apparently caught in the middle of one such traffic snarl.
“Rajinikanth’s car is stopped suddenly. A senior uniformed police officer taps his car window. The driver lowers it,” author Gayathri Sreekanth wrote in the biography. Apologising to him, the policeman said, “No traffic jam can move until the CM’s entourage drives past the road.” When Rajinikanth asked how long he would have to wait, the cop said half an hour.
When Rajinikanth pointed out, “I am sure no car is so big to take half an hour. Why don’t you allow the crowd and vehicles to move until then?” the officer replied, “Sorry, Sir, orders.” The superstar took this personally and asked, “Are you deliberately stopping me?” But as the cop’s reply was silence, the actor grew restless.
What followed was a scene straight out of a Rajinikanth film, where he stepped out of the car, walked towards a “box shop”, bought a packet of cigarettes, leaned against a lamppost and lit a cigarette. The scene changed almost instantly when the people realised who was amidst them. Dr Radhakrishnan Road, where the incident happened, soon started swarming with people, eager to see their beloved superstar.
Sensing that the situation was spiralling out of control, the police officer rushed back to him and requested him to move away. “Sir, I’m waiting for her to pass. I don’t mind waiting,” Rajinikanth replied with swagger. Although solid evidence asserting this to be true is unavailable, the book has been out in public since 2008.
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That incident, among others, became instrumental in Rajinikanth’s decision during the 1996 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections to campaign against Jayalalithaa. Not only did the Superstar extend his support to the DMK-Tamil Maanila Congress alliance, he even publicly said once, “Even God can’t save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa returns to power.” The impact this single line had was such that, not only did the AIADMK lose by being reduced to 4 (from 225 in 1991), but Jayalalithaa herself lost the Bargur constituency, which she had previously won.
At a prayer meeting following Jayalalithaa’s demise in 2016, Rajinikanth recalled this incident and said, “Jayalalithaa lost elections in 1996 because of me. I had hurt her,” he said. Calling her the Kohinoor diamond, he said, “Now, that Kohinoor diamond rests besides MGR.” He also maintained that she was a blessed human being. “My daughter wanted to arrange her wedding at my house in Poes Garden. With the chief minister living next door, how can I not invite her to the wedding? But, I had my doubts that she might not come. Amma saw the invitation and said the same day there was the wedding of one of her party members. But she said that she will ask her party member to postpone his wedding and surely come to my daughter’s wedding,” he added.
