JAYALALITHA
Jayalalitha was born into a Tamil Iyengar family on 24 February 1948. In accordance with Iyengar custom she was given two names, thus her other name is Komalavalli. Her birthplace was Melukote, in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district, Karnataka. Her grandfather was in the service of the then Mysore kingdom as a surgeon, and the prefix Jaya has been added to all the names in the family to reflect their association with Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar of Mysore.
Jayalalitha’s father died at her age of two. Her mother then moved to Bangalore, where her parents lived, with Jayalalitha. Her mother eventually began to work as an actress in Tamil cinema, based in Chennai, having taken the screen name of Sandhya. While in Bangalore, Jayalalitha attended Bishop Cotton Girls' High School. She completed her childhood education at Sacred Heart Matriculation School popularly known as Church Park Presentation Convent or Presentation Church Park Convent in Chennai. She excelled at school and was offered a government scholarship to pursue further education. She appears not to have accepted the admission offered to her at Stella Maris College, Chennai.
J. Jayalalitha is the Chief Minister of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. She is the first elected female Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa was a popular film star in Indian cinema before her entry into politics, having appeared in many Tamil and Telugu films, as well as several produced in Hindi and Kannada. She is the incumbent general secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). She is called Amma (Mother) and Puratchi Thalaivi (Revolutionary Leader) by her followers. Although there have been claims that Jayalalithaa was introduced to politics by Ramachandran, she has denied this. She was a member of the Rajya Sabha elected from Tamil Nadu during the period of 1984–89. Soon after the death of Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa proclaimed herself as his political heir.
