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J Jayalalitha ஜெ. ஜெயலலிதா
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 May 2011
Preceded by	M. Karunanidhi
Constituency	Srirangam
In office 2 March 2002 – 12 May 2006
Preceded by	O. Panneerselvam
Succeeded by	M. Karunanidhi
Constituency	Andipatti
In office 14 May 2001 – 21 September 2001
Preceded by	M. Karunanidhi
Succeeded by	O. Panneerselvam
Constituency	Did not contest
In office 24 June 1991 – 12 May 1996
Preceded by	President's rule
Succeeded by	M. Karunanidhi
Constituency	Bargur
Personal details
Born	(1948-02-24) 24 February 1948 (age 76) Mysore, India
Political party	AIADMK
Residence(s)	Poes Garden, Chennai, India

Jayalalithaa Jayaram (Template:Lang-ta; born 24 February 1948) commonly referred to as J. Jayalalitha, is the Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. She is the incumbent general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), a Dravidian party. She is called Amma (English: Mother) and Puratchi Thalaivi (English: Revolutionary Leader) by her followers. She was a successful film actor in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi before entering politics.

Early life

Jayalalithaa was born on 24 February 1948 and was also known at that time as Komalavalli. Her birthplace was near to the city of Mysore. Her grandfather was in the service of the then Mysore kingdom as a surgeon, and the prefix Jaya has been added to all the names in the family to reflect their association with king Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar of Mysore.

Jayalalithaa’s father, who had been a wealthy lawyer, died when she was two years old having lost all of his money. Her mother then moved with her children to Bangalore, where Jayalalithaa's maternal grandparents lived. Her mother eventually began to work as an actress in Tamil cinema, based in Chennai and having taken the screen name of Sandhya. While in Bangalore, Jayalalithaa attended Bishop Cotton Girls' High School. She completed her childhood education at Sacred Heart Matriculation School (popularly known as Church Park Presentation Convent or Presentation Church Park Convent) in Chennai. She excelled at school and has said that she was offered a government scholarship to pursue further education and that her ambition was to become a lawyer, but that the financial position of her family prevented this. She appears not to have taken up a place offered to her at Stella Maris College, Chennai.

Film career

Early career

Her mother persuaded her to work in films when Jayalalitha 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. Jayalalitha acted in an English language film, Epistle, released in 1961. She made her debut as the lead actress in Kannada films while still in school, aged 15, in Chinnada Gombe (1964).

She got her first break in Tamil movie industry in Vennira Aadai (1965), directed by C. V. Sridhar. The following year, she made her debut in Telugu cinema with the film Manushulu Mamathalu. She was perhaps the first heroine to appear in skirts in Tamil films.

Between 1965 and 1972 she acted frequently with M. G. Ramachandran and she also worked with B. Saroja Devi in Arasa Kattali. Her other early roles were in suspense films such as Naan and comedies such as Galatta Kalyanam.

Later career

She won her first Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance in Pattikada Pattanama, which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil. She also won the first Filmfare Best Tamil Actress Award and Filmfare Best Telugu Actress Award, in 1972. Her performance in Suryakanthi and Chandradhoyam were critically acclaimed and she won her second Filmfare Best Tamil Actress Award in 1973.

Her films with Sivaji Ganesan include Galatta Kalyanam and Deiva Magan. She continued pairing up with younger actors such as Ravichandran and Jaishankar in films such as Vairam.

Later Tamil films in which she acted included Kandan Karunai and she also starred in Bollywood films, initially in Izzat, which saw her paired with Dharmendra. She also established her popularity in Telugu films, including Sri Krishna Satya. Her last film was Nadhiyai Thedi Vandha Kadal which released in 1980.

Political career

Her involvement in politics grew from her association with Ramachandran, who had founded the AIADMK and was Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu as well as an actor, In 1980 he made Jayalalithaa the party's Propaganda Secretary. She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1984. and her position as Ramachandran's political disciple helped her become his political heir. After the death of Ramachandran she was alienated by a faction of the party who chose to support his wife, Janaki Ramachandran.

She was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly in 1989. and became the first woman to be elected Leader of the Opposition. In 1991, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi just 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 elected female chief minister and the youngest ever chief minister of Tamil Nadu, serving the full tenure from 24 June 1991 to 12 May 1996. Janaki Ramachandran had technically been the first female chief minister following her husband's death, but she was unelected.

Due to an anti-incumbency wave, and several allegations of corruption and malfeasance against her and her ministers, she lost power to the D.M.K in 1996, in a landslide defeat. All the ministers in her erstwhile cabinet, including her, were defeated in the elections and six of them lost their deposits, meaning that they did not even secure the minimum number of votes expected of them.

She returned to power with a huge majority in the 2001 elections, having mustered a bigger coalition and defying many pre-poll predictions. In the 2006 assembly elections, her party lost to the DMK.

Controversies - lawsuits and acquittal

Her first term as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu resulted in several legal actions being brought against her, mainly involving charges of embezzlement and monetary fraud.

In 2001, a specially designated court convicted her of criminal breach of trust and of illegally acquiring governmental property belonging to TANSI, a state-run agency. She was sentenced her to five years' imprisonment but appealed to the Supreme Court of India. As the conviction stood until the outcome of the appeal was decided, she was disqualified from contesting the 2001 elections. When her party won those elections further controversy ensued because she was installed as Chief Minister as a non-elected member of the state assembly.

On 21 September 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that "a person who is convicted of 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 14 May 2001 and 21 September 2001. O. Panneerselvam, a minister in her party, was subsequently installed as the Chief Minister. However, his government was widely believed to have been puppeted and micro-managed by Jayalalithaa. In 2003, the Supreme Court acquitted her in the specific case, for lack of conclusive evidence to convict her. This cleared the way for her to contest a mid-term poll to the Andipatti constituency, after the elected representative for the seat, gave up his membership. Winning the election by a handsome margin, Jayalalithaa took over the Chief Ministership again. She till 2008 was party in a few criminal litigations, from her first term rule, in the courts in the neighbouring Karnataka state but has been acquitted in 2011.

After the 2006 assembly elections, O. Panneerselvam was elected the AIADMK legislature party leader and hence the Leader of the Opposition in the assembly after she decided not to attend the assembly except if "absolutely necessary". However, she, by virtue of her strong control over her party, was considered to be the de-facto leader of the opposition in the state. Later that month when all the attending AIADMK MLAs were suspended, she started attending the assembly. She was elected the legislature party leader. Of the 11 corruption cases levied against her in period 1996-2003, she was acquitted in 9.

Third term as Chief Minister

In April 2011 the AIADMK was part of a 12-party alliance that successfully won the 14th state assembly elections. Jayalalitha was sworn in as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the third time on 16 May 2011, having been elected unanimously as the leader of the AIADMK party subsequent to those elections.

Member of the legislative assembly

Chief Minister

Awards and honors

Special honors

Jayalalithaa has received several honorary doctorates since that awarded to her in 1991 by the University of Madras. In addition, she has been awarded:

• 1972 - Kalaimamani from the Government of Tamil Nadu
• 1993 - Doctor of Letters from Madurai Kamaraj University
• 2003 - Doctor of Letters from Bharathidasan University

References

1. Venkatesan, Radha (14 May 2004). "Votes stolen via remote control: Amma's minister". Express India. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
2. ^ Srinivasaraju, Sugata (21 March 2011). "The Road To Ammahood". Outlook India. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
3. ^ Raman, A. S. (September 2001). "The Iron Lady of India". The Contemporary Review. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
4. ^ "Profile". Tamil Nadu Government.
5. "I Wanted To Be A Lawyer, Not A Politician, Jayalalitha Had Told Rajat Sharma's Adalat". indiatvnews.com. 14 May 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
6. Find Tamil Actress Jayalalitha Videos, Jayalalitha Movies, Jayalalitha Pictures and Filmography | Jointscene.com
7. Boxofficeindia.com
8. Her entry into politics- The making of Jayalalithaa - Indiatimes: Picture Story
9. The Image Trap: M.G. Ramachandran in Film and Politics Journal article by Robert L. Hardgrave Jr.; Pacific Affairs, Vol. 66, 1993 - Hosted on Questia
10. The Changing Politics of Tamil Nadu in the 1990s by John Harriss and Andrew Wyatt (PDF) Retrieved on 11 November 2007
11. Peter Goodspeed - National Post - 12 November 2003 - Online version
12. Family business as politics - The Economic Times 1 February 2006 ()
13. Obituary for Janaki Ramachandran mentioning Jayalalitha's relationship with MGR - Asiaweek
14. Private lives go public - The Times of India, 25 March 2001 Retrieved on 11 November 2007
15. India offers Arnie a pointer or two - Asia Times
16. Krishna K. Tummala (1992). "India's Federalism under Stress". Asian Survey. 32 (6): 538–553. doi:10.1525/as.1992.32.6.00p01782.
17. Indian Politics: Encourages Durgas, Snubs Women - India Together 10 October 2006
18. Atul Kohli (1990). Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521396921. pp 162
19. Alida Brill (1995). A Rising Public Voice: Women in Politics Worldwide. Feminist Press. ISBN 1558611118. pp 61
20. Paul R. Brass (1994). The Politics of India Since Independence. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521459702. pp 131
21. Text of the judgment by the Supreme Court of India
22. "Special court adjourns wealth case against Jayalalithaa to March 22". The Hindu. Chennai, India. 18 March 2010.
23. Jayalalithaa: Mother of comebacks - India - DNA
24. Jayalalitha acquitted of corruption in privatisation case
    | Asian Tribune
25. "Jayalalithaa sworn in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 16 March 2011. Retrieved 16 March 2011.

External links

• J.Jayalalitha at IMDb
• Profile on website of TamilNadu Government
• Jayalalithaa: From Alluring Actress to Powerful Politician-by D.B.S. Jeyaraj
• Profile at Nilacharal
• Profile by BBC (1999)
• BBC News article - Jayalalitha returns to power (dated 2 March 2002)
• rediff.com Special on J. Jayalalithaa
• BBC - Controversial life of Jayalalitha
• BBC Hardtalk RealPlayer video of Jayalalitha (RealPlayer required)

Template:Persondata

• Articles with multiple maintenance issues from June 2011
• 1948 births
• Living people
• All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians
• Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu
• Indian actors
• Tamil actors
• Indian women in politics
• People from Mysore
• Indian actor-politicians