urMadurai: A temple dedicated to former Chief Ministers and AIADMK leaders MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa was today inaugurated in Madurai by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam.
The event comes just months ahead of the Assembly election, the first after Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016.
The temple, which was commissioned by the State Revenue Minister RB Udhayakumar whom Jayalalithaa had first inducted into the cabinet — has been constructed on a one-and-a-half-acre plot near the city’s T Kallupatti area at a cost of Rs 50 lakh. It contains bronze statues of the two leaders.
Udhayakumar said, ‘We call our Amma (J Jayalalithaa) with different names of Goddesses like ‘Idhaya Deivam (Goddess of Hearts), Kaval Deivam (Guardian Goddess) and Kulasamy (Goddess of our Tribe), and this temple only formalises that. We have enough space around the temple for people to come and worship.’
Earlier this week, a phoenix-themed memorial for Jayalalithaa was inaugurated at the Marina by Palaniswami.
