Following the Supreme Court upholding the trial court's conviction of VK Sasikala in the disproportionate assets case, how long will she be out of electoral politics?


The trial court had on September 27, 2014, sentenced Jayalalithaa, Sasikala, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran to four years imprisonment, of which they had served eight months when the Karnataka high court overturned their conviction.


Following the Supreme Court restoring the trial court's order today, the three of them (the case against Jayalalitha having become infructuous owing to her death) will have to spend the remaining part of the sentence in jail - that is, three years and four months which, assuming no further judicial intervention, expires in June 2020.


The Election Commission rules bar convicted persons from contesting polls for six years after their sentence is over. Which means Sasikala cannot fight elections till June 2026.


Tamil Nadu voted in May 2016; in the ordinary course, the next election is due in May 2021, and the next one in May 2026.


As things stand, Sasikala, who will be 71 years old then, will have missed it by one month.