Her mortal remains will be kept in state at the historic Rajaji Hall on Tuesday to enable the public to pay homage.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa
is no more. Seventy-four days after being admitted to hospital here, the general secretary of the All
India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam passed away at 11.30 p.m. on Monday. She
did not respond to emergency life support treatment administered after she
suffered a cardiac arrest a day earlier. She was 68.
Late in the night, her body was being
taken to ‘Veda Nilayam’, her residence in Poes Garden in the heart of Chennai.
Officials said her mortal remains would be kept in state at the historic Rajaji
Hall on Tuesday to enable the public to pay homage.
An hour before the announcement about
her death was made, the police strength outside the Apollo Hospitals was
increased and the route from the hospital to her residence was cleared for
traffic. Security personnel took position outside in good measure.
Around midnight Sasikala Natarajan, her
trusted aide of over 30 years, who was by her side since the time Jayalalithaa
was admitted on September 22, left the Apollo Hospitals for Poes Garden.
Jayalalithaa was one of the country’s
most articulate and determined political personalities and a top film actress of the 1960s and
1970s.
She showed enormous resolve in fighting one obstacle after another since the
time she stepped into the world of politics in June 1982, under the mentorship
of Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), the founder of the AIADMK and her
lead co-star in 28 Tamil films.
Scenes
of sorrow
The death plunged the State and the
party into grief. AIADMK cadres and other members of the public who had massed
outside the hospital wailed inconsolably, beating their chests, as the news was
announced after weeks of anxiety, which peaked on Monday. The State declared a
seven-day mourning and a holiday for educational institutions for three days.
The national flag and the AIADMK flag would be flown at half-mast as a mark of
mourning.
Announcing her death shortly after
midnight in a bulletin, the Apollo Hospitals referred to the cardiac arrest she
suffered on the evening of December 4 “even while our intensivist was in her
room”. It added: “Despite our best efforts, the Honourable Chief Minister’s
underlying conditions rendered her unable to recover and she passed away at
11.30 p.m. today.”
On November 13, Jayalalithaa had been
moved to a private room after she had miraculously battled multiple health
complications.
A one-time propaganda secretary of the
party and a former Rajya Sabha MP, Jayalalithaa steered the AIADMK since 1989
when the party, which had split into two following MGR’s death in December
1987, reunited under her stewardship. In the last six years, the political
fortunes of the AIADMK soared to a new high with Jayalalithaa leading it to back-to-back
victories in the 2011 Assembly elections, local body polls, the 2014
Parliamentary polls and the last Assembly elections in May 2016.
Since 2011, Jayalalithaa had launched
several public welfare schemes doling out numerous freebies under the ‘Brand
Amma’, such as launching the Amma Unavagam (canteen), Amma Water, Amma Salt —
winning accolades nationally and endearing herself to the masses.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/Jayalalithaa-no-more/article16766475.ece1
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