Why Jayalalithaa is important to Tamil Nadu?
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa passed away on Monday, breathing her last at 11.30 pm. She had been undergoing treatment since September 22 at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai and suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday evening, triggering fresh fears among her ardent supporters about the gravity of her condition.
Tamil Nadu is on the edge and understandably so, given that Jayalalithaa has been in the thick of things here for the past four decades. Jayalalithaa forayed into politics in 1982 by joining the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which was founded by the iconic MG Ramachandran. The actor-turned-politician delivered a hugely successful speech, titled Pennin Perumai (The Greatness of a Woman) in her first public gathering in Cuddalore.
A year later, Jayalalithaa was elevated as the party’s propaganda secretary and campaigned for the party in the Thiruchendur by-election. She was elected member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1984, a year which marked a turning point in her political career. In the same year, MGR was left incapacitated after suffering a stroke and hospitalised in the United States. Jayalalithaa, reportedly, pounced on the opportunity and approached then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for instating her as the Chief Minister of the state.
Although she was stripped of several party posts as the rift with MGR widened, Jayalalithaa successfully steered AIADMK to resounding victories in the absence of MGR in two crucial elections to the Lok Sabha and the legislative Assembly in the same year.
Following the demise of MGR in 1987, the party plunged into disarray as it split into two factions. The other faction was led by MGR’s wife Janaki Ramachandran, who became chief minister with the support of 97 out of the 132 AIADMK MLAs. Her reign, however, could last only for 21 days as Rajiv Gandhi dismissed the Janaki-led government and imposed the President’s Rule in 1988.
Jayalalithaa, however, overcame this brief setback by sweeping the state polls two years later with the Jaya faction ending up with 27 seats. She became the first woman leader of the opposition in the legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. In 1989, the two warring factions of AIADMK merged and unanimously accepted Jayalalithaa as their leader.
She became the chief minister for the first time in 1991 following a thumping victory for the AIADMK-Congress alliance, which won 225 seats out of possible 234. Her first term as CM was marred with several controversies with her being accused of signing controversial land deals, mismanaging funds in granite quarrying lease, amassing assets disproportionate to her known source of income among others. In 1996, she suffered her biggest defeat in the state elections amid corruption charges with AIADMK winning a paltry four seats.
Jayalalithaa was arrested in December that year and spent close to a month in prison after Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy filed a private complaint in a court accusing her of amassing a staggering amount of disproportionate assets during her term as CM. Until 2000, she concentrated on her defense for the cases against her. Although she was acquitted in some cases, others continued to haunt her.
Making a strong return to the politics, Jayalalithaa became the chief minister for the second time following a landslide victory in the 2001 Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly elections. However, in another turn of events, she was deposed after the Supreme Court of India quashed her appointment due to the pending corruption cases. O Paneerselvam was then appointed CM.
The year of 2003 saw her return to the throne after the Madras High Court cleared her on some counts and allowed her to contest elections. She won the mid-term poll from the Andipatti constituency.
The titanic tussle between the DMK and AIADMK continued as the former defeated the Jayalalitaa-led government, winning 163 seats. She then served as the leader of Opposition until 2011. AIADMK stormed back to power in 2011 by winning 203 seats as ‘Amma’, revered by her followers, assumed the power for the third time, though corruption charges continued to dog her political career.
In 2014, she was forced to step down from her position after a Special Court in Karnataka convicted her in the disproportionate assets case and sentenced her to four years in prison with a fine of Rs 100 crore. Paneerselvam once again took charge as CM as Jayalalithaa spent a month in jail before getting bail. The imprisonment of Jayalalithaa led to tumultuous incidents in several parts of Tamil Nadu with supporters vandalising public property.
A year later, the Karnataka High Court absolved Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case, which led to her return as CM once again after cruising to victory in the by-election. The judgment proved pivotal as she was re-elected as the chief minister in the 2016 assembly elections. Significantly, this was the first time in 32 years that a Chief Minister was selected to serve consecutive terms. AIADMK front won 136 seats as opposed to DMK alliance’s 98 seats.
Despite numerous controversies surrounding her political career, Jayalalithaa has long enjoyed a cult-like following in the state, largely due to her populist and pro-poor schemes. This was also evident when she was admitted to the hospital with several people being arrested on charges of “spreading rumours” about her health.
Considering the extreme devotion she inspires among her followers, any news about her health has been closely monitored since then amid fear that it could spark unrest within the state.
From the time she was admitted to the hospital on September 22, Jayalalithaa was being attended to by a team of 18 senior doctors including intensivists, respiratory physicians and cardiologists besides specialists flown from the AIIMS in New Delhi and London. On Sunday, hours before the hospital issued the bulletin, the AIADMK had claimed that the Chief Minister would return home “soon” as she had ‘completely recovered’.
Source: Indian Express
