From Komalavalli to Amma: The story of Jayalalithaa, a lioness
Jayalalithaa’s meeting with MGR marked the beginning of her political career. MGR appointed her as the propaganda secretary of his party.
Birth: Jayalalithaa was born on February 24, 1948, in Mysore, to the couple Sandhya and Jayaram, as the second child. Her real name was Komalavalli. Her family members lovingly called her Amrutha. When Jayalalithaa was one year old, her father Jayaram passed away. Meanwhile, Jayalalithaa’s mother Sandhya started getting offers in films. She made her film debut with the movie “Karkottai”. At that time, Amrutha and her brother were admitted to the Holy Angels School in Chennai. But unable to take proper care of the children, their mother Sandhya sent them to their grandmother’s house in Bangalore. She was then admitted to Bishop Cotton’s School. Jayalalithaa was later brought back to Chennai and admitted to Church Park Convent.
She joined the matriculation school in 1963. In her younger days, she aspired to be a college lecturer. But time led her to cinema and politics. While busy in the film industry, a dance performance by Jayalalithaa in front of R.M. Veerappan laid the foundation for her political career.
Meeting MGR proved to be the seed for Jayalalithaa’s political career. MGR appointed Jayalalithaa as the propaganda secretary of his party. In the 1986 Madurai conference, Jayalalithaa presented a gold-plated silver scepter to MGR. MGR in turn, gave it back to Jayalalithaa.
Meanwhile, after MGR’s death on December 24, 1987, Janaki became the Chief Minister. But her rule collapsed in just 24 days. The AIADMK split into two factions, Ja and Je. They contested the next assembly election in 1989. In this, the J faction won 27 seats. The Janaki faction suffered a humiliating defeat by winning only one seat.
The J faction won 21.15% of the votes. In this situation, Jayalalithaa became the leader of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. In February 1989, the two factions of AIADMK merged under the leadership of Jayalalithaa. In 1991, the AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa contested 168 constituencies and won 164 seats. Jayalalithaa became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. In the 1996 elections, she faced a humiliating defeat due to various reasons including the fake encounter and the marriage of her foster son.
Jayalalithaa became the Chief Minister again in 2001. Due to the conviction in the Tansi case, she lost her position due to disqualification. In the 2006 assembly elections, she contested in alliance with the MDMK and the Dalit Panthers and won only 69 seats. Later, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, AIADMK also faced defeat. But in 2011, she won 150 seats and formed the government. Later, in the 2016 assembly elections, Jayalalithaa also won and became the Chief Minister.
On September 22, 2016, she was suddenly admitted to Apollo Hospital in Chennai due to ill health. After 75 days of treatment, it was said that she had recovered, but she died suddenly of a heart attack on December 5 at 11:30 pm.
She became very close to the people of Tamil Nadu due to various welfare schemes. She introduced many schemes that made Tamil Nadu proud, such as the Girl Child Protection Scheme, Cradle Baby Scheme, Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammayar Memorial Financial Assistance Scheme, Free Bicycle for Students, and Amma Unavagam. It is no exaggeration to say that she was called Amma not only by AIADMK members but also by all sections of the society.