New Delhi: Jayalalitha Jayaram, commonly referred to as Jayalalitha, Jaya or ‘Amma’, is fondly called ‘Puratchi Thalaivi’ (Revolutionary Leader) by her party workers and followers who revere her as a regional deity.
Born on February 24, 1948 at Melukote in Mandya district of Karnataka, Jayalalitha is the general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party and four-time chief minister of Tamil Nadu, having served as head of state from 1991 to 1996, briefly in 2001, from 2002 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2014.
Jayalalitha’s father died when she was two years old. Her mother eventually began to work as an actress in Tamil cinema, having taken the screen name of Sandhya. While still in Bengaluru, Jayalalitha attended Bishop Cotton Girls’ School. Her mother persuaded her to work in films when Jayalalitha was 15 years old and was still in school, taking assurances from producers that shooting would take place only during summer vacations and that she would not miss her classes.
In 1964, she made her debut as lead actress in Kannada films while still in school with the movie ‘Chinnada Gombe.’ She was the first heroine to appear in skirts in Tamil films. She appeared in over 120 Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films.
In 1982, she joined the AIADMK, which was founded by MG Ramachandran (MGR). MGR wanted her to be a member of the Rajya Sabha because of her fluency in English. Jayalalitha was nominated and elected to that body in 1984 and retained her seat until 1989.
Following MGR’s death in 1987, the AIADMK split into two factions: one supported his widow Janaki Ramachandran, and the other favoured Jayalalitha.
In February 1989, the two factions of AIADMK merged and they unanimously accepted Jayalalitha as their leader and the “Two leaves” symbol of the party was restored. In 1991, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi days before the elections, her alliance with the Indian National Congress enabled her to ride the wave of sympathy that gave the coalition victory.
Re-elected to the assembly, she became the first female, and the youngest, chief minister, of Tamil Nadu, to serve a full term, serving from June 24, 1991 to May 12, 1996.
Interestingly, the wedding event of her foster son Sudhakaran, who married granddaughter of the Tamil film actor Shivaji Ganesan, was held on September 7, 1995, in Chennai and was viewed on large screens by over 150,000 people. The event holds two Guinness World Records: one is for the most guests at a wedding and the other is for being the largest wedding banquet.
Jayalalitha was barred from standing as a candidate in the 2001 elections because she had been found guilty of several criminal offences. Despite this, the AIADMK won a majority and she was installed as Chief Minister as a non-elected member of the state assembly on May 14, 2001.
Her appointment was legally voided in September 2001 when the Supreme Court ruled that she could not hold it whilst convicted of criminal acts. Subsequently, in March 2002, Jayalalitha assumed the position of chief minister once more, having been acquitted of some charges by the Madras High Court. In April 2011, AIADMK was part of a 13-party alliance that won the 14th state assembly elections. Jayalalitha was sworn in as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the third time on May 16, 2011.
On September 27, 2014, Jayalalitha was sentenced to four years in jail and fined Rs1 billion by the Special Court in Bengaluru. She was convicted in an 18-year-old disproportionate assets case that was launched by then Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy on August 20, 1996 on the basis of Income-Tax Department report on her.
