J Jayalalithaa newsmaker in Tamil Nadu, albeit for wrong reasons

CHENNAI: Conviction of Jayalalithaa in a graft case and her unseating from the chief minister's chair, twin blasts and a legal wrangle that stalled the release of seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case were among major events that unfolded during 2014 in Tamil Nadu.

The collapse of a multi-storey building at Moulivakkam which claimed more than 60 lives, a dhoti row, the brutal rape and murder of a woman techie by migrant workers outside her office and conviction of 10 people in the Kumbakonam school fire tragedy also kept the state in news.

On the political front, ruling AIADMK suffered a major jolt when its chief Jayalalithaa was sent to jail upon her conviction in the Rs 66-crore illegal wealth case by a special court in Bengaluru on September 27.

The first chief minister from Tamil Nadu to land in jail for corruption, she faced disqualification from her Assembly membership and lost the chief minister's post.

The four-year jail term to Jayalalithaa, whom her partymen worship as 'Puratchi Thalaivi' (revolutionary leader) and 'Amma' (mother) set off a wave of protests across the state and suicides claiming more than 150 lives.

Her close aide Sasikala, her disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi also got a four-year jail sentence and hefty fines to the tune of Rs 130 crore. Jayalalithaa and the other three are now out on bail granted by Supreme Court.

O Panneerselvam and his team of new ministers assumed office wailing and in a hush-hush manner apparently to avoid media glare and to give the event of power succession a sombre note on September 28.

The internecine war of succession between DMK treasurer M K Stalin and his elder brother, Madurai strongman Alagiri, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls dealt a devastating blow to DMK and its patriarch, M Karunanidhi, axed his elder son from the party on March 25.

Embattled Congress' cup of woes only added up, when one of its top leaders and former Union minister G K Vasan quit the party in November and revived his father's Tamil Maanila Congress.