Jayalalitha no more. Tamil Nadu on 7-day mourning

mangaloretoday/PTI

Chennai, Dec 05: Tamil Nadu cChief minister J.Jayalalithaa passes away. End came at 11-30 pm at Appolo hospital, Chennai. Government announced a seven-day State Mourning starting on Tuesday.

During the period, the national flag on all government buildings will be flown at half-mast. No official entertainment will also be held during this period, chief secretary P Rama Mohana Rao said in a notification.

“The government of Tamil Nadu announce with profound regret, the demise of Selvi J Jayalalithaa, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu at 11.30pm on Monday, Dec 5, 2016. State Mourning will be observed for seven days from 6.12.16, during which period the national flag on all government buildings will be flown at half-mast. No official entertainment will also be held during this period,” it said.

The government also declared a three-day holiday for all educational institutions in the state.

The neighbouring Union Territory of Puducherry announced a holiday for all government offices and educational institutions on Tuesday as a mark of respect to Jayalalithaa.


Former Tamil Nadu finance minister O Panneerselvam was sworn in as the chief minister at the Raj Bhavan early on Tuesday morning hours after Chennai’s Apollo Hospital announced AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa’s death.

Panneerselvam is the 19th chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

AIADMK MLAs unanimously elected O Panneerselvam as the new legislative party leader.

Earlier in the night, state assembly speaker P Dhanpal called on the governor Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan.

Pannerselvam was the acting CM twice before when Jayalalithaa was disqualified to be the chief minister.

From humble beginnings as a tea stall owner in the 1980s, he ended up as the trusted loyalist of Jayalalithaa and became the chief minister himself. A man who kept a very low profile when pitchforked as the chief minister, Panneerselvam did not even enter the room of the chief minister and instead functioned from his own room.

Now 64, Panneerselvam had served as the chief minister in two spells from 2001 to 2002 and again from 2014 to 2015. When Jayalalithaa was hospitalised in September, Panneerselvam was handed over all the portfolios handled by Jayalalithaa.

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa passed away on Monday night after a 74-day battle for life at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai.