Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa loses a long health battle, dies at 68

The Tamil Nadu CM, who had been in hospital since September 22, had suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday evening

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Supremo J Jayalalithaa (68) passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on Monday following a cardiac arrest the previous evening. She had suffered a cardiac arrest barely hours after the party announced that she had recovered from all her ailments.

Jayalalithaa had died at 11:30 pm, Chennai's Apollo Hospital said in an official statement at midnight.
 
Jayalalithaa had been admitted to Apollo Hospital on September 22 after complaining of fever and dehydration. But it was later said that the primary infections were in her lungs. Doctors from abroad and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had been roped in to assist the group of doctors at the city’s Apollo Hospital.
 

 

Often referred to as Tamil Nadu’s ‘Iron Lady’, Jayalalithaa had been the chief minister of the state for four terms and a Rajya Sabha member for two terms.
 
The who's who of the country -- from political leaders and their supporters to industry captains -- sent their condolences to Jayalalithaa, whose term had seen some of the big-ticket investments in Tamil Nadu and over $20 billion coming in foreign direct investments (FDI). During the Global Investors Summit last year, over Rs 2.43 lakh crore worth of investments had been signed. She was also credited with taking many initiatives at the national level, such as rain-water harvesting, low-cost canteen, pharmacy, health insurance, etc, all taking her brand ‘Amma’ forward.

 
The news of her death came as a shock to her party cadre and supporters, whose hopes of seeing their leader come home safe were dashed. Their hopes primarily emanated from the fact that she had had battled for long with ailments and was seen as recovering.
 
While the true status of her health conditions had not been disclosed, the social media and WhatsApp groups had been loaded with rumours ever since her hospitalisation.
 
However, several official decisions had been announced during the initial days of her admission, including clearing of the list of candidates for the local body elections, composition of a team of officials from Tamil Nadu for talks over the Cauvery water dispute with Karnataka (she had even met senior administrators, dictated the speech to be read out at the Cauvery meeting, according to a government statement) and issued a statement allotting festival bonus to the state public sector undertakings.

 
Party spokesperson C Ponnaiyan had said that she had been conscious and the decisions had been taken after consulting and taking approvals from the chief minister. The ministers and secretaries concerned had been taking care of the day-to-day activities.
 
Before she suffered a cardiac arrest on Sunday, Apollo Hospitals management had said that Jayalalithaa, who had the history of diabetes and winter bronchitis in inclement weather, had fully recovered from her present ailments.
 
She had reportedly been suffering from various ailments right from the time of her swearing-in on May 23, 2015, after returned from a 21-day imprisonment in Bengaluru in connection with an alleged 19-year-old disproportionate asset case.