Life and times of our golden stellar J Jayalalithaa
Posted on: 06/Dec/2016 3:02:00 PM
Her life and political history began with struggles. Jayalalithaa was the second daughter of Jayaraman and Sandhya couple. She was born on 24th February 1948. Her star sign is Magam. Though Jayalalithaa was born in Mysore city, her ancestors’ hailed from Trichy Srirangam. Rengachary was the grandfather (Jayaram’s father) of Jayalalithaa. Narasimhan Rengachary, was in the service of the Mysore kingdom as a surgeon, and served as the court physician to Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV of Mysore.
When Jayalalithaa was 2 years old, her father passed away, Jayalalithaa who studied in Bishop Cotton Girls` School, Bangalore later pursued her school studies in Chennai Church Park Convent.
Jayalalithaa was a studious girl. While studying she learnt Bharatanatyam formally. She gave her debut dance performance at the age of 12 in Mylapore. She also leant Carnatic music formally. She completed her matriculation in the year 1964. Like her mother language Tamil, she was able to speak English, Kannada, Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam with proficiency. When she was trying to pursue her higher studies, a turning point took place in her life. Her advent into the film industry took place.
Jayalalithaa mother’s sister Vidyavathi was already acting in films. Her mother Sandhya had also started acting. Jayalalithaa was not interested in acting. In spite of this she made her debut in acting because of her family situation. Though she was acting in few Kannada films, she donned the female lead role in the film titled Venniradai directed by Sridhar. This film was released in 1965.
While the film was under production, she paired with MGR in the film Aayarathil Oruvan directed by B. R. Panthulu. Even before the release of Venniradai, she had acted in an English film The Epistle produced by Shankar Giri who was the son of the former President of India V V Giri.
From the beginning of her film career, she reached the pinnacle of fame. Her mother Sandhya passes away in 1971. Jayalalithaa in her memory of her mother built a house in Poes Garden and named it after her. The house was called Veda Nilayam (original name of Sandhya). In a span of 16 years she had acted in 112 films. Jayalalithaa who quit cinema became the member of the ADMK party. She stepped into politics in the year 1982. In the same year, MGR introduced her in a conference which was held in Cuddalore. He nominated her as the propaganda secretary.
In the year 1984, Jayalalithaa was made a MP in the Rajya Sabha. She also served as a vice president of ADMK in Rajya Sabha. When MGR was ill and was treated in America, the Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections was held. Jayalalithaa had an important participation in the election propaganda, After MGR’s demise the part was split. Though Janaki became the chief mister with the support of the MLAs, Jayalalithaa had the support of her cadre people.
Because of this Janaki was able to reign for only 24 days. After this, Janaki quit the politics. Jayalalithaa became the general secretary of the united AIADMK party. In the 1991 elections, the AIADMK contested on 168 constituencies and won in 164 places. For the first time she took charge as Chief Minster.
In 2001 elections, the AIADMK won in 132 places and Jayalalithaa became CM again. Again in the 2011 Legislative Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK and its allies bounced back, winning 203 seats out of 234, with the AIADMK securing 150 seats on its own. The new government was formed on 16 May 2011 and Jayalalitha became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the fourth time.
Again in 2016 Legislative Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu the AIADMK came back into power with 134 seats.
At this juncture Jayalalithaa, who was admitted to hospital on September 22 with complaints of fever and dehydration, suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday evening. On Monday, Jayalalithaa continued to be very critical and was on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) and life support systems. And the end came at 11.30pm.
