21 December,2016 12:43 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
An idli weighing 68 kilograms, and in the form of Jayalalithaa's face, was made by supporters at Marina Beach on Tuesday, in memory of the late Tamil Nadu chief minister
An idli weighing 68 kilograms, and in the form of Jayalalithaa's face, was made by supporters at Marina Beach on Tuesday, in memory of the late Tamil Nadu chief minister.
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After battling for life for nearly 75 days, Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5, 2016 at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, more than 24 hours after she suffered a cardiac arrest. She was 68. According to AIADMK, 77 persons died due to shock after hearing about the illness and later the demise of Jayalalithaa. They have even announced a solatium of Rs 300,000 to their families. Post her death, party leaders have urged late leader Jayalalithaa's confidante V.K. Sasikala to take charge of AIADMK.
Jayalalithaa was a leading actress in 140 films of several languages from 1961 to 1980, before entering politics. She was a member of the Rajya Sabha, elected from Tamil Nadu, from 1984 to 1989. A tinsel heroine, who inherited the legacy of her mentor late MGR, had entered politics in the early 1980s as the propaganda secretary of AIADMK and was made the incharge of the noon meal scheme undertaken by the MGR government.
Watch: Rare photos of Jayalalithaa you may not have seen
Born in a Brahmin family, Jayalalithaa emerged as a fiesty leader in a state where forces of social justice had thrown up an anti-Brahmin political movement even before independence. She practised politics on her own terms and was one of the two poles in the state for nearly 30 years fighting the DMK headed by redoubtable M Karunanidhi.
Jayalalithaa, who was the second Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu after Janaki Ramachandran, served as Chief Minister from 1991 to 1996, in 2001, from 2002 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2014. She became the first incumbent chief minister in India to be disqualified from holding office due to conviction in a disproportionate assets case on 27 September 2014.
Also Read: Why Jayalalithaa was buried and not cremated
The Karnataka High Court acquitted Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case on 11 May 2015, and she resumed office as Chief Minister on 23 May. Jayalalithaa was re-elected as Chief Minister on May 19, 2016 and took the oath as Chief Minister for the sixth time on May 23, May 2016.
