J Jayalalithaa was sworn in as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu after AIADMK stomped to Victory

J Jayalalithaa was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 16 May 2011 by Governor SS Barnala along with 33 cabinet ministers at the Madras University. Her party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) stomped to victory in the state elections, landing 203 of the 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. The DMK and the Congress parties contested the election jointly, and were hammered, with the DMK delivering one of its worst performances ever, managing barely 22 seats.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram who was born 24 February 1948 in Mysore, Karnataka is popularly called Amma (English: Mother) and Puratchi Thalaivi (English: Revolutionary Leader) by her followers. She was a film actor in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi before entering politics.

Jayalalitha made her debut as a teenager in a Kannada film titled Chinnada Gombe (1964), which went on to become a major hit. She also acted in a English movie, Epistle released in 1961. Her films rarely saw failure at the box office. Some of her commercially successful films with Sivaji Ganeshan include Pattikada Pattanama, Galatta Kalyanam, Sumathi En Sundari, Enga Mama, Raja and Deiva Magan. She has also rendered her voice for few songs in Tamil films like Adimai Pen, Sooritakanthi, Vairam  etc.

In 1981, she was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1988, marking her entry into the Parliament of India.

Drawing on her massive popularity, she won the elections to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly in 1989 and became the first woman to be elected Leader of the Opposition. In 1991, following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, her alliance with the Indian National Congress paid off as a sympathy wave propelled the coalition to a massive victory. She was re-elected to the legislative assembly and became the first elected woman chief minister of Tamil Nadu, serving the full tenure (24 June 1991 - 12 May 1996). She lost power to the D.M.K in 1996, in a landslide defeat, following and several allegations of corruption and malfeasance against her and her ministers. The corruption charges were later on found to be false cases made by DMK party.

She won again in 2001. However on 21 September 2001 five -judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India ruled that a person who is convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to imprisonment for a period of not less than two years cannot be appointed the Chief Minister of a State under Article 164 (1) read with (4) and cannot continue to function as such. The bench decided that there has been a clear infringement of a Constitutional provision in the appointment of Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister. her appointment as Chief Minister was declared null and invalid O. Panneerselvam, a minister in her party, was installed as the Chief Minister though the government was widely believed to have been puppeted and micro-managed by Jayalalithaa.

In the 2011 state assembly elections AIADMK led a 12 party alliance including the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Part of India Marxist (CPM), Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK), Republican Party of India (RPI), Forward Block, All India Movvendar Munnani Kazhagam (AIMMK) etc. The voter turnout was 75.21% and Jayalalithaa emerged victorious from the Srirangam constituency.