Born into a family of eminent freedom fighters and politicians, Jayanthi Natarajan’s maternal grandfather was the former Chief Minister, M. Bhaktavatsalam.
When ‘kingmaker’ Kamaraj quit the Chief Minister’s post, he zeroed in on his Cabinet colleague Bhaktavatsalam, who had earned a name as an able administrator. Bhaktavatsalam was brought to politics and freedom movement by his uncle, C.N. Muthuranga Mudaliar, who was also once considered for the post of Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency.
The simmering anger against the Congress government in the wake of rice scarcity and the anti-Hindi agitation of the mid-1960s led to the defeat of the Congress in 1967, and Bhaktavatsalam turned out to be the last Congress Chief Minister of the State.
Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan’s mother, Rukmani Sundararajan, was Bhaktavatsalam’s younger daughter. His elder daughter was well-known social activist Sarojini Varadappan.
Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan’s father C.R. Sundararajan was a famous surgeon and a pioneer in the field of plastic surgery. Sundararajan’s father V.K. Ramasamy Mudaliar was a leader of the Congress Reform Committee (CRC) and the leader of opposition in the Madras Assembly during 1957-62.
After completing her school education at the Sacred Heart Matriculation School at Church Park, Ms Jayanthi Natarajan studied Law and practised under noted lawyer V.P. Raman. She is married to K. Natarajan, an engineer and son of the former Chief Secretary, V. Karthikeyan.
