Security beefed up at Jayalalithaa's Poes Garden residence after CM Palaniswamy's memorial announcement

Chennai: The Poes Garden residence of J Jayalalithaa has come under thick security cover after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami announced its conversion into a memorial.

Police presence was scaled up significantly and barricades put in place near Veda Nilayam in Poes Garden after the chief minister's announcement on Thursday, official sources said.

Officials of some government departments have also reportedly started descending at the venue to inspect the sprawling bungalow, they said.

Palaniswami had said the residence located in posh Poes Garden area would be converted into the memorial, a key demand of the rival AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma faction led by O Panneerselvam for the merger of the two AIADMK camps.

The bungalow was occupied by Jayalalithaa till her hospitalisation in September last year along with V K Sasikala.

Sasikala, who took over the party reins after the death of Jayalalithaa in December last year, continued to live there amid murmurs of protest by sections of her partymen.

Though the bungalow, which now remains unoccupied and maintained by a few staff, was thrown open to the public for a while earlier this year, later it has been virtually made out of bounds for people.

The 10 ground (approx 24,000 square feet) bungalow was bought by Jayalalithaa and her mother Veda in 1967.

Jayalalithaa had hosted several top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance minister Arun Jaitley, at the house, even as her neighbors included 'Superstar' Rajinikanth.

It was from the balcony of the Poes Garden that Jayalalithaa used to greet her followers with her signature 'V' sign on key occasions, including after her back-to-back assembly election victory in May 2016.

'Veda' is the name of Jayalalithaa's mother, who was known as Sandhya in the Tamil film world.

Early this year, former chief minister O Panneerselvam, who rebelled against Sasikala, had launched a signature campaign to turn Veda Nilayam into a memorial.

The campaign had evoked a good response with a large number of people supporting it.