Q: Why did the Italian get behind the Dravidian?

A: So she could stab him in the back, maybe?

It looks like the Kanchi case has a side-track that Jayalalitha intends to ride for some political mileage. I'm talking about the Annanagar Ramesh case. Ramesh was a close associate of M.K. Stalin, Karunanidhi's son (-yeah, he really did name his own son after a genocidal paranoid megalomaniac).

Some guy filed a case implicating MK Stalin in a bribery case. (Get this - he filed a complaint because he paid a bribe to Stalin for some illegal tenders, but Stalin never delivered the tenders! So the complaint against Stalin is not just of corruption but of dishonest corruption!! You can't make this stuff up!) Ramesh, as Stalin's friend and driver supposedly knew all about it. The police were leaning on him bigtime to rat on Stalin.

Ramesh ended up dead of an overdose along with his wife and two little kids. Between the time police discovered the bodies and his cremation, they found not one but two suicide letters on Ramesh.

Now, the talk about TN is that the Kanchi tamasha has a parallel plot. In addition to getting her chubby little paws on all the charitable endowments of the Mutt, the Kanchi case will allow JJ's police raaj to rope in Krishnaswami alias Appu, who will be made to deliver Stalin's head on a proverbial platter to Jayalalitha... As they say in Tamil - oru kal, irendu maangai ...

With the Grim Reaper closing in on nemesis Karunanidhi (who is already over 80) , JJ, rumor has it, sees an opportunity. Kalaignar's impending death will surely lead to some infighting in the DMK. There are already a number of people jockeying for power, and Stalin, (surprise, surprise!) isn't especially popular. Karunanidhi appears to have a spare heir through his son-in-law, Dayanidhi (Murasoli Maran, Jr.). Don't split your sides if the DMK splinters apart when MK croaks.... JJ's gotta like her chances... after all she is pretty honestly corrupt. The only thing she can really be accused of is intermittent rabid insanity.

Sonia, on the other hand, may be nervous. If MK croaks, who will keep those Southies in line? Especially if MK's heir and spare start fighting for the crown... err... dark sunglasses. Politics makes for strange bedfellows, and maybe JJ's bed is beginning to look comfy to La Italiana.

You gotta wonder about this whole scenario... If the center is involved in the Kanchi persecution, and Maino made a secret deal with "Amma", was Stalin the payoff for JJ?

Which begs the question, why did the Italian get behind the Dravidian? Was it only so it would be more convenient to stab him in the back?