Jayalalithaa - first among regional chieftains who played big nationally

Once underestimated by detractors and media, J Jayalalithaa as inheritor of MGR's political legacy successfully retained the base of AIADMK and once coalition politics era set in New Delhi's corridors of power, she was able to display her prowess. By 1998, coalition politics was at its peak in the citadel of power in New Delhi and hence BJP's first stint in power under Atal Behari Vajpayee was not quite smooth as Jayalalithaa kept the NDA alliance on tenterhooks.

More than Vajpayee had to depute either Jaswant Singh or George Fernandes to pacify her. In fact, Jayalalithaa had established some political coordination with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and was able to bring down the Vajpayee government in April 1999 after she attended a tea party (hosted by Dr Subramanian Swamy) wherein Sonia Gandhi too was invited. Vajpayee's 13-month government fell when the NDA government lost the crucial vote of confidence motion in the Lok Sabha by a single vote on April 17, 1999.

However, there was a political vacuum soon as the non-NDA parties, including the Left, Congress and AIADMK and other parties, could not cobble together an alternative regime. This came in after the Congress president staked a claim with the then President K R Narayanan to form alternative government with her brief comment to the media: "We have 272 (member support in Lok Sabha) and we will have more". It is altogether a different chapter that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav played spoilsport to the political plot of Jayalalithaa, Dr Swamy, Sonia, Congress leader Arjun Singh and others when he raked up Sonia's foreign origin and declined to extend support to any regime headed by Congress president.

At a later stage as performance of her party in the Lok Sabha declined gradually, she remained away from national politics. But on June 18, 2007, Jayalalithaa again had played a crucial game vis-a-vis national politics along with the likes of N Chandrababu Naidu and christened a third front naming in the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). Addressing a press conference at her residence along with other UNPA leaders, AIADMK supremo said: “President APJ Abdul Kalam is universally acceptable as the best choice by all sections of the society and commands the respect.

We feel a general consensus should be built in his favour for continuing for a second term as President.” The new alliance had parties like Samajwadi Party, INLD, AGP and Telugu Desam Party (TDP). But the front too was short lived as Kalam did not oblige the alliance to seek re-election as the President and at a later stage in 2008 - Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi walked out of the UNPA to extend support to the Manmohan Singh government over the Indo-US Nuclear deal.

AIADMK supremo also played a key political role with regard to the state of Gujarat and its leader Narendra Modi. Even as AIADMK initially demanded Modi's resignation in 2002 as Gujarat Chief Minister for the post-Godhra riots, on December 22, 2002, Jayalalithaa was among the national leaders gracing Modi's swearing in ceremony as the Chief Minister at a grand ceremony also attended by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. (UNI)