Jaya suffers biggest blow at 'home'

In a quirk of fate, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha on Saturday suffered the biggest blow of her political career in the very State where she was born and spent her initial years.

The order convicting and sentencing her in the DA case was passed by a special court here. As a result of the conviction, she has ceased to be an MLA and she will now have to resign as chief minister.

Jayalalitha, who made a big name as film star and politician in Tamil Nadu, was born in the pilgrim centre of Melkote in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district on February 24, 1948, to an Iyengar couple, Jayaram and Vedavalli.

The suffix ‘Jaya’ was added to her name as well as to that of her siblings to show the family’s close affiliation with the Mysore Maharaja, Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar since her grandfather had served as surgeon in the princely state of Mysore. Her mother fondly called her Komalavalli.

Jayalalitha’s family shifted to Bangalore after the demise of her father. Jayalalitha studied for a brief period at the Bishop Cotton Girls’ School here in the 1950s. Later, her family had to move to Chennai when her mother Vedavalli started her career in Tamil movies adopting the screen name Sandhya.

As a result, rest of Jayalalitha’s education took place in Chennai. Later, she started to act in Tamil films. She has even acted in a Kannada movie ‘Chinnada Gombe’ when she was just 15.

Though Jayalalitha was in Mandya district, people of the district have often criticised her for her stand on sharing Cauvery water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.