Chennai: J Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar on Tuesday announced her decision to enter the political arena following the footsteps of Jayalalithaa.

Addressing her first press conference, nearly 40 days after the demise of Jayalalithaa, Deepa stated: “I plan to embark on my political journey at an appropriate time.”

Further she said, “I am starting a new journey in my life today.” She however will give details of her plan on the former Chief Minister’s birth anniversary on February 24. The ruling AIADMK marks the birth centenary of their founder MG Ramachandran or MGR on this day.

The 42-year-old bears a striking resemblance to her aunt. In posters over the past few weeks, she has morphed into a lookalike, complete with her style of wrapping her sari and waving to supporters.

A section in the party sees her as the counterweight to Jayalalithaa’s close friend Sasikala Natarajan, recently elected AIADMK chief after decades in the shadows.

Deepa came into the news recently after she alleged that she was not allowed to visit her aunt at the Apollo hospital in Chennai. Later, she also alleged she was not allowed to attend her funeral in December. “As a blood relative, I wanted to be with her in her most trying times as she was the person I loved the most and I always wanted to be with. I was even looked upon by many as heir apparent to my aunt,” she had mentioned in a blog recently.

She had not met with her aunt or stepped into Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden home since 2007. There have been reports of friction within the family after Jayalalithaa adopted Sasikala’s nephew and after the demise of the Chief Minister’s father, all communication had stopped.

Earlier Deepa had told a group of supporters who had gathered at her home a few weeks after Jayalalithaa’s death that her entry into politics could not be stopped.

Since the last few weeks, there has been a steady increase in the number of AIADMK workers at Ms Jayakumar’s Chennai home.

At a recent rally at Jayalalithaa’s RK Nagar constituency, a section of the AIADMK cadre openly said, “We don’t want Sasikala to contest here. We want Deepa here.”

However the AIADMK that has chosen Sasikala as their party chief has questioned, “Where was Deepa all these years? AIADMK spokesperson CR Saraswathi stated that the support of the real cadre lies with Sasikala”.