CHENNAI
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, a popular leader who showered the poor with populist programmes and a pole in state politics for three decades, died here Monday night at a private hospital after battling for life for the 75 days.
The 67-year-old leader, who suffered a massive cardiac arrest on Sunday evening, passed at 11:30 pm, the Apollo Hospitals said in a statement.
Even as her death was announced, the AIADMK MLAs were meeting at the party headquarters to elect a successor to Jayalalithaa amid speculation that loyalist O Panneerselvam will fit into her shoes.
Jayalalithaa, who scored a historic win in the assembly elections in the state little over six months ago, was admitted to Apollo Hospitals on September 22 with fever and dehydration but she could never recover.
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.
Born in a Brahmin family, Jayalalithaa emerged as a feisty 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
Earlier, high drama marked the day when some television channels reported that she was no more which was hotly denied by the Apollo Hospitals that said a team of its doctors and those from AIIMS was continuously monitoring the health of Jayalalithaa.
It denied as “totally baseless and false” reports that she had passed away. During the day the hospital said her condition was “very critical” and remained “grave”, while the British doctor Richard Beale, who had been consulted, said she was “extremely grave”.
Behind the scene political manoeuvering was also reportedly on to consider possible strategies on who could lead the party and the government in case the worst happens.
The MLAs and top leaders met informally in the hospital in the morning and were later called to the party headquarters for further consultations. Party sources, however, said the second meeting was postponed but gave no indications about when they would meet again.
Finance Minister O Panneerselvam, who had on two earlier occasions stood in for Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister when she was convicted in two corruption cases,
figured as a possible successor. Panneerselvam, left the hospital late in the night and reached the party headquarters where MLAs were in a huddle.
Earlier in the day, even as the MLAs were trooping into the party headquarters, the wrong reports about her health forced their partymen to lower the AIADMK flag. The flag was rehoisted after the hospital issued the denial.
