Echoes of history: Before Sunetra Pawar, VN Janaki was sworn in as Tamil Nadu CM after MGR’s death

“This arrangement was irrevocably shattered after Jayalalitha entered MGR’s life, starring opposite him in her first film Ayirathil Oruvan in 1985,” writes author Attar Chand in M G Ramachandran, My Blood Brother (1988).

For the next few years, Jayalalitha moved in with Ramachandran while Janaki moved out. In 1972, however, he was convinced by his elder brother to take Janaki back. The two later married in the Mookambika Temple in Karnataka.

Chand notes, “Jayalalitha maintained a separate residence while Janaki ruled in Ramavaram Gardens [the house of MGR].”

A political vacuum and succession war

On October 5, 1984, MGR suddenly took ill, and was moved to New York in a special plane provided by then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Meanwhile, a question arose about managing the Tamil Nadu government while the chief minister was away.

“For the running of the party, a committee was set up to oversee its functioning. The proposed committee would have necessarily included Jayalalithaa. But a large majority of the leaders was against her, for various reasons,” notes political commentator Kalyani Shankar in The Empress: The Dramatic Life of A Powerful and Enigmatic Leader (2017).

When MGR ultimately died of a prolonged illness on December 24, 1987, there was a political vacuum. The battle for succession in the AIADMK had boiled down to MGR’s widow, Janaki Ramachandran, and Jayalalithaa.

Authors Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Shankar Raghuraman note in A Time of Coalitions: Divided We Stand (2004), “Senior AIADMK leaders recognised that they could not take on Jayalalithaa on their own, since MGR in his lifetime had made it amply clear that he saw her as his second-in command. In Janaki, however, they thought they had found a person who could make the most of the ‘sympathy wave’ that was bound to follow MGR’s death.”

While Jayalalitha had the support of 33 MLAs, Janaki was backed by 99 legislators. She was sworn in on January 6, 1988, becoming the chief minister and leader of the AIADMK legislature party. This rule, however, was short-lived.

The Centre dismissed the Janaki government on January 30, 1998, and imposed President’s Rule in Tamil Nadu.

While there is no formal legal provision, historically, widows of politicians have been elected or nominated to political posts after the death of their husbands.