5. JayalalithaJayalalitha Jayaram is the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and general secretary of AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). She is said to be a protégé of former Tamil Nadu CM M G Ramachandran.
Like MGR, Jayalalitha also joined politics after a successful stint in Tamil film industry.
She was born into a Tamil Iyengar family. In accordance with Iyengar custom, she was given two names, thus, her other name is Komalavalli.
She entered politics in 1982 and joined MGR's political party AIADMK. In 1984, she became a Rajya Sabha MP and retained her seat till 1989.
In 1989, she became the leader of opposition in Tamil Nadu assembly and after two years she won a landslide victory in state assembly elections in alliance with Congress party.
She took over as the first elected female Chief Minister and the youngest ever Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 24 June 1991. It should be noted that Janaki Ramachandran, the wife of MGR, was technically the first female chief minister of Tamil Nadu following her husband's death, but she was unelected.
Presently, she is serving her third term as Chief Minister. In April 2011, her party as part of 13-party alliance comprehensively won the 14th state assembly elections.
