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Jayalalithaa Jayaram or J. Jayalalithaa (born February 24, 1948, Mysore) is the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India (since March 2, 2002). She is also the general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (a regional party in the state). Currently in her second term, she is popularly called Amma (mother) by her followers.

She was born in Mysore to actress Sandhya as Komalavalli. Prior to her venture into politics, she had a successful career in the Tamil film industry as an actress. Chinnada Gombe, her first film (in Kannada) was a major hit. Her first Telugu film Manushulu Mamathalu made her a superstar. In 1972, she was honored by the Tamil Nadu government with the award Kalaimamani.

Entry into politics

In 1981, she joined the AIADMK and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1984 marking her entry into the Parliament of India. Her association with politics grew from her relationship with M. G. Ramachandran, movie star and then Chief Minister. On M.G R's death, she was alienated by a faction of the party who chose to support M.G R's wife Janaki Ramachandran. Drawing on her massive popularity and her image as the "wronged woman", in 1989, she was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly—-incidentally, she became the first woman to be elected Leader of the Opposition. The then ruling party, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - Dravidian People's Party), tried to assault her in the assembly, and there, she reportedly took a oath to enter the assembly house only as chief minister. In 1991, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, just days before the elections, her alliance with Indian National Congress paid off as a sympathy wave propelled the coalition to a massive victory. She was re-elected to the legislative assembly and became the first elected woman chief minister of Tamil Nadu (Janaki Ramachandran was the first woman caretaker CM) serving the full tenure (June 24, 1991 - May 12, 1996). However, due to an anti-incumbency wave, and several allegations of corruption and malfeasance against her and her ministers, she lost power to the DMK in 1996, in a landslide defeat. She returned to power with a huge majority in the 2001 elections, having mustered a bigger coalition and defying many pre-poll predictions.

Influence

In the era of coalition politics she wields influence with the central governments and has been a part of both the ruling and opposition alliance at some point of time. She was instrumental in toppling the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998, though it backfired on her as she lost the following parliamentary elections heavily. Her political fortunes seem to have taken a downswing in the 2004 elections where her party was virtually wiped out in elections to the national parliament.

Corruption Charges

She is well known for her corruption charges including but not limited to the TANSI case where the case against her was the strongest. Many other cases were registered though little were followed through due to political clout and reported bribing of the judges.

On September 21, 2001, a five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled in a unanimous verdict that "a person who is convicted for a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of not less than two years cannot be appointed the Chief Minister of a State under Article 164 (1) read with (4) and cannot continue to function as such". Thereby, the bench decided that "in the appointment of Ms.Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister there has been a clear infringement of a Constitutional provision and that a writ of quo warranto must issue". In effect her appointment as Chief Minister was declared null and invalid. Therefore, technically, she was not the Chief Minister in the period between May 14, 2001 and September 21, 2001. She manged to circumvent this by appointing a puppet Chief Minister O Panneerselvam until she returned to her post.

Though not convicted, strictures were passed against her by the Supreme Court of India in the TANSI case where she was asked to "atone" by "answering her conscience." Her puppet TV, Jaya TV, managed to filter these remarks by the court and cleverly broadcasted that she was acquitted of all charges.

Extravagant Lifestyle

Her first reign as Chief Minster was filled with blatant misuse of government property and machinery and was well publicised. One of the incidents was the marriage of her adopted son which was conducted with poor taste and extravagant show of her wealth. She was often compared to Imelda Marcos during her first reign. TIME magazine remarked on this particular occasion as "vulgar display of wealth". One footage showed vast numbers of footwear and empty suitcases (used to bring money to her) in her possession soon after she fell from power in 1996. She also has a huge collection of jewels which were recently the subject of income tax scruity as she was suspected of tax evasion and the gold jewellery were supposedly brought with black money. Jayalalitha has also floated her own TV station called Jaya TV which she runs in the name of Sasikala's nephew. Her extravagance nearly cost her post and she nominated a dummy candidate as the Chief Minister until she could "buy" more time to legally insert herself as Chief Minister.

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Awards and Degrees

In 1991, the University of Madras honored her by conferring the degree of D. Litt. (Doctor of Literature). In 1992, the TN Dr. MGR Medical University conferred the degree of Doctor of Science on her. In 1993, the Madurai Kamaraj University conferred the degree of Doctor of Letters on her. In 2003, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University conferred the degree of Doctor of Science on her and the Bharatidasan University conferred the degree of Doctor of Letters on her.

Trivia

• A fervent believer in numerology she changed her name to the present one by adding an additional "a" to Jayalalitha. Her current name is Jayalalithaa.
• Earlier she was conspicuous in her sarees when she often wore only a green coloured saree which symbolised her lucky colour according to Hindu Astrology. These days she prefers a blue color, probably because now her astrologer has advised her to wear this as it suits the current planetary conditions.
• Her command over her party MLAs is often parodied in media since there is excessive glorification and falling under her feet.
• After an IT raid in which many gold and diamond jewellery were confiscated, she has sworn never to wear any ornaments in her life.
• She has the unique distinction of acting in movies of former Chief Minsters of different states. She has starred alongside NTR, MGR as well as acting in a movie penned by Karunanidhi.

Conspiracy theories

• According to some popular conspiracy theories, Jayalalithaa was a secret concubine of M. G. Ramachandran. In fact M. G. Ramachandran the founder of AIADMK had a wife before he married Janaki (who also became a chief minister of Tamil Nadu after his death). His first wife (to whom he was very fond of) died very early. Because Jayalalitha resembled his First wife, MGR was attracted to her. This was very well potrayed by Mani Ratnam in his movie Iruvar where Aishwarya Rai played the dual role of MGR's first wife as well as Jayalalitha

• Jayalalithaa in an interview to the Thuglak magazine in 1971, admitted that she was living in with Telugu cine actor Shoban Babu and justified the arrangement. It is said that they together have a daughter in Andhra Pradesh. Infact everytime Jayalalitha is on the verge of losing an election and/or power a couple of vehicles are said to depart for her daughter's farmhouse in Hyderabad.

• Many suspect that her relationship with Sasikala, her close confidante is more than mere friendship as both are supsected to be involved in a homosexual relationship.

External links

• Profile on website of Tamil Nadu Government
• Profile at Nilacharal
• Profile by BBC (1999)
• BBC News article - Jayalalitha returns to power (dated March 2, 2002)
• rediff.com Special on J. Jayalalithaa
• BBC Hardtalk interview

• 1948 births
• Indian actors
• Indian politicians
• Incumbent Indian Chief Ministers
• Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
• Tamil Nadu
• Indian women
• Actor-politicians