In another indication of her shift from the pan-Tamil Dravidian agenda, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday declared that her government would consider introducing Hindi as an optional language in schools if the Centre declared Tamil as an official language of the Union.

She made the announcement while launching welfare schemes worth Rs 720 million (Rs 72 crore) in the southern Kanyakumari district.

Jayalalithaa's announcement comes nearly forty years after an anti-Hindi agitation rocked Tamil Nadu and contributed in no small measure to the pan-Tamil Dravida Munnetra Kazhagan coming to power in 1967.

Since returning to power in 2001, Jayalalithaa has strayed considerably from what is perceived as the pan-Tamil, pro-Dravidian political agenda.

After introducing an annadhanam (free food) scheme in temples, she went on to invite Hindu religious heads like Kanchi Kamakoti mutt seer Sri Jayendra Saraswati to advise the state government on temple administration.

More recently, her government introduced the anti-conversion law, which greatly endeared her to the Sangh Parivar while antagonizing Dravidian and pan-Tamil parties, like the DMK, MDMK and the PMK.

Yet, the ruling AIADMK's victory in the recent assembly by-election in Sattankulam, where the minorities are in a majority, proved that she still enjoys the confidence of the electorate.

In contrast, Jayalalithaa had kept her religious beliefs, perceived as non-Dravidian, to herself during her earlier stint as chief minister and while out of power.

Even then she was a step ahead of her mentor and former chief minister M G Ramachandran, who could not make a public visit to the Mookaambiki temple in neighbouring Karnataka until quite late in his political career.

In 1992, when she was the chief minister, Jayalalithaa took a holy dip during the Mahamaham (a kind of Kumbh mela) at the Kumbakonam temple (in Thanjavur district).

However, in her second stint in power, she is not content with keeping her views under wraps and they are even finding expression in the form of state policy.