Biography of J. Jayalalithaa

Jayalalithaa Jayaram ( born 24 February 1948 ), commonly referred to as J. Jayalalitha, is the former Chief Minister and current leader of the opposition of the Government of Tamil Nadu, India. She is the incumbent General Secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( AIADMK ), a Dravidian party in the state.

J. Jayalalithaa

J. Jayalalithaa is called Amma ( English : Mother ) by her supporters and Puratchi Thalaivi ( English : Revolutionary Leader ) by her followers. She was a popular film star in Tamil and Telugu cinema before entering politics.

J. Jayalalithaa EarlyLife

J. Jayalalithaa was born Komalavalli in Melukote in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district, Karnataka,  in a Tamil Iyengar family, native of Srirangam, Trichy. She was initially educated at the Bishop Cotton Girls’ High School in Bangalore but later moved to Madras State ( now Tamil Nadu ) along with her mother Sandhya, who ventured as an actress into Tamil cinema.

J. Jayalalithaa was then schooled at Sacred Heart Matriculation School ( popularly known as Church Park Presentation Convent ) in Chennai ( then, Madras ). She excelled in academics and has claimed that she was offered a scholarship for higher studies from the Government of India but with guidance from her mother, young Jayalalitha moved into film industry.

J. Jayalalithaa started acting most of her well known hits when she was 15. She had an older brother, Jayakumar, who died in the early 90’s. He was married to Vijaya and has two children.

J. Jayalalithaa Film Career

Prior to her venture into politics, she had a successful career in the Tamil film industry as an actress. She acted in the English language movie Epistle released in 1961 and produced by Shankar Giri, son of former president of India Dr. V. V. Giri. Chinnada Gombe, her first film in Kannada, was a major hit.

J. Jayalalithaa first Telugu film Manushulu Mamathalu made her famous. In 1972, she was honored by the Tamil Nadu State Government with the Kalaimamani award. She has acted opposite Dharmendra in the Hindi Movie Izzat. Her last film was Nadhiyai Thedi Vandha Kadal in 1980.

J. Jayalalithaa Political Career

In 1981, she joined the AIADMK and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1988, marking her entry into the Parliament of India. Her association with politics grew from her friendship with the Late M. G. Ramachandran ( popularly known as M.G.R ), a movie star and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, and her position as MGR’s concubine helped her become his political heir.

On M.G.R’s death, she was alienated by a faction of the party who, instead, 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 won the elections to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly, incidentally, becoming 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 paid off as a sympathy wave propelled the coalition to a massive victory.

J. Jayalalithaa was re – elected to the legislative assembly and became the first elected woman chief minister of Tamil Nadu, serving the full tenure ( 24 June 1991 – 12 May 1996 ) ( Janaki Ramachandran technically became the first woman chief minister following her husband’s death, but she was unelected and presided over a transitional ‘caretaker’ government ).

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 even 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 last assembly elections held in 2006, her party had to relinquish power to the DMK government. Read More on..