Jayalalithaa - A revolutionary leader departs
Born to Jayaram and yesteryear actress Sandhya in Mysore in 1948, Jayalalithaa rose to stardom as a child actor. Her first lead role was in the Kannada film Chinnada Gombe in 1964 at the age of 15.
Jaya's debut in the Tamil film industry came in 1965 with Vennira Aadai. In the same year she acted opposite MG Ramachandran, who would later become the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and her political mentor.
She entered politics in 1982 and was appointed the AIADMK's propaganda secretary in 1983. In 1984, MGR made her a Rajya Sabha member.
Her big moment in politics, ironically, came with the death of her mentor MGR later in 1984. A power struggle broke out between MGR's wife Janaki and Jayalalithaa.
Publicly humiliated and kicked off MGR's funeral procession carriage, she began consolidating a support base within the party. The divided AIADMK lost the 1989 elections to the DMK but Jaya's faction garnered more seats than Janaki's, leaving the former with sole control of the party.
Her heroine moment came in 1989 when the TN assembly witnessed its darkest hour. Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was delivering a speech when an ugly and abusive row broke out between Jayalalithaa and the DMK chief. She started staging a walkout when a DMK minister allegedly tried to disrobe her. The incident united the AIADMK firmly behind Jayalalithaa and she went on to win the 1991 elections, becoming the CM for the first time.
Tamil Nadu continued to swing between the DMK and the AIAMDK in subsequent elections and in 1996 Jayalalithaa was jailed in a corruption case as soon as Karunanidhi came back to power.
She enjoyed a third win as CM in 2011 and became the first returning chief minister of the state in three decades in 2016, two years after another brief stay in jail.
Though she lost the battle with deteriorating health, her fighting spirit reaffirmed the title given to her - "Puratchhi Thalaivi".
News Posted: 5 December, 2016
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