Impressed with Jayalalithaa's fluency in English, MGR sent her to Rajya Sabha and that was the beginning of a very rewarding political career for Jayalalithaa.
It is said that Jayalalithaa's meteoric rise made her enemy of many senior leaders of MGR's party and their machinations resulted in widening rift between Jayalalithaa and MGR.
It is also said that In 1984, when MGR suffered a massive stroke, Jayalalithaa attempted usurp the position of chief minister. An angry MGR her from the role of deputy leader of the party.
After the death of MGR in 1987, his party AIADMK split into two factions - one section supporting his widow, Janaki Ramachandran, and the other favouring Jayalalithaa.
Jayalalithaa emerged as the political heir to MGR and was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly in 1989 and became the first women leader of opposition in Tamil Nadu.
In 1991, she joined hands with Congress for assembly elections, in the aftermath of Rajiv gandhi's assassination and became the Chief Minister oF tanil Nadu. She lost power in 1996.
She became CM once again in 2001 in 2011.
It is interesting to note that In 1997, Jayalalithaa vowed not to wear any jewelry after the DMK government confiscated all her jewelry during investigation into cases relating to owning disproportionate assets.
Things recovered from Jayalalithaa's house after the raid included 750 pairs of footwear, 800 kg of silver, 28kg gold, 10,500 sarees, 91 watches and 44 Air conditioners.
For 14 years, Jayalalithaa did not wear any jewelry. She wore it once again in 2011 only after storming back to power. She said she was forced to wear them by her part's workers and she had to respect their sentiments.
