Jayalalitha

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). This is the second term of her position as Chief Minister. She is popularly called "amma" (mother) by her followers.

She was born in Mysore to actress Sandhya . Prior to her venture into politics, she had a successful career in the Tamil film industry as an actor. 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.

In 1981, she joined the AIADMK and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1984 making her entry into the Parliament of India. In 1989, she was first elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly where 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 assembly, and she took a oath to enter the assembly house only as chief minister. True to her words, In 1991, she was not only re-elected to the legislative assembly but also became chief minister for the first time serving for the full tenure (June 24, 1991 - May 12, 1996). Due to an anti-incumbency wave and several allegations of corruption against her ministerial colleagues and against herself, she lost the power to the DMK in 1996 in a landslide, only to come back to power with a huge majority defying all predictions aired in the media and the exit polls in 2001.

On September 21, 2002^[1], 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.

Some of her claimed achievements in this tenure are:

1. Banning 'kandu vatti' (process of borrowing money) - relieving thousands of the poor
2. Banning lottery tickets to encourage savings
3. Relaxation camp for elephants that served in temples
4. Attracting many IT companies to Chennai - including INFOSYS
5. Successfully implementing rain water harvesting measures on schedule.
6. Banning video piracy with strict laws.
7. Elimination of the much feared bandit Veerappan through intelligent actions.

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

• Closing salutation: Periyar namam vazhga, Anna naamam vazhga, Puratchi thalivar naamam vazhga

Conspiracy theories

According to some popular conspiracy theories, Jayalalithaa was a secret concubine of M. G. Ramachandran.

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