V. S. Chandralekha

V. S. Chandralekha (born 25 July 1947) is an Indian civil servant and politician who was the President of the Tamil Nadu state unit of the Janata Party, which merged into Bharatiya Janata Party on the 11 of August 2013. M.G. Ramachandran had appointed her as IAS the state's first-ever woman collector.^[1]

Early life and education

Chandralekha was born on 25 July 1947 at Dindigul in the then Madras Presidency. She had her education in Madras and mastered in economics from Presidency College, Madras before joining the Indian Administrative Service.

As civil servant

Chandralekha joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1971 and served as the Sub-Collector of Chingleput and Cheranmahadevi from 1973 to 1975 and as General Manager, Civil Supplies Corporation & Deputy Secretary, Food from 1976 to 1980. From 1980 to 1985, she served as District Collector, first, of South Arcot and then, Madurai. She served as the Director of Rural Development, Tamil Nadu from 1985 to 1988, Chairman of Women's Development Corporation, Tamil Nadu from 1988 to 1990 and Chairman & Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation from 1991 to 1992. She resigned from the civil service in 1992.

As politician

Chandralekha joined the Janata Party in 1992. She has been serving as the President of the party's Tamil Nadu unit from 1992. In 1996, she stood against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's M. K. Stalin for the post of Mayor of the Chennai Corporation, but lost. She participated in the 2006 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections as the candidate from Mylapore constituency and came fifth, garnering only 2,897 votes.^[2]

She introduced Sasikala Natarajan to Jayalalithaa^[3]

Notes

References

• "Profile of V. S. Chandralekha". Janata Party. 
• "'Karunanidhi does not have a good track record'". Rediff. 10 May 1996.