The opposition AIADMK's discomfiture is likely to work in favour of the ruling DMK-backed Congress candidate.
After the Supreme Court banned a bandh planned by the the ruling alliance on Monday, Karunanidhi said he will fast demanding the early completion of the Sethu Samudram canal project.
Capitalising on the boycott by main opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Democratic Progressive Alliance on Friday expectedly swept the by-polls to five Tamil Nadu assembly seats, trouncing actor-politician Vijaykant's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam by impressive margins.
According to the police and Dinamalar sources, about 20 VCK activists, armed with clubs and glass bottles, attacked two security men on duty, injuring one of them.
Talking to media persons in Chennai after chairing the party's emergent administrative committee meeting, which was attended by six parliamentarians and 18 legislators, PMK founder-leader Dr S Ramadoss said though different views were expressed in the meeting, the party had decided to renew talks with the DMK to sort the issue.
Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam, which had snapped ties with Pattali Makkal Katchi two months ago, on Sunday invited the S Ramadoss-led party back in the alliance, a move supported by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram.Karunanidhi, in an interview, said the Democratic Progressive Alliance in the state would have been stronger if the PMK continued in the alliance but stressed that the alliance had not been weakened due to its ouster.
The already strained relations between the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam and the Left parties hit the nadir on Friday with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi stating that Communist Party of India - Marxist leader N Varadharajan's remarks only showed that the Left parties had already decided to walk out of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance. Karunanidhi took a dig at the CPI-M state secretary on the latter's remarks that Congress was a 'sinking ship'
"If the coalition partners had to support all the decisions of the ruling party, why should they have separate parties? They could as well dissolve their parties and merge with the DMK and sing peans in its favour. This is what the DMK is expecting from its allies."
DMK-led alliance captures Coimbatore, Tirupur
The state government ordered closure of all educational institutions, commercial and industrial establishments, state public sector undertakings and state government offices under the Negotiable Instruments Act in view of the bandh.
Though the Supreme Court had stayed the Tamil Nadu bandh called for Monday by the ruling DMK and its allies on the Ram Sethu Project, buses in most parts of the state were off the roads and shops in main thoroughfares remained closed.
It also promised to repeal the law banning religious conversions.
Claiming that the All India Anna Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam, headed by Jayalalithaa, would be isolated in the electoral arena, he said her hopes of weaning away the PMK to its fold would not succeed.
Jayalalithaa, in a statement in Chennai, alleged that DMK activists, accompanied by rowdies and anti-social elements, had rigged polling in all the 155 wards in the Chennai Corporation with the help of police
Part two of an exclusive interview with the MDMK leader.
The CPI said it did not understand why the government had to give som much land at low price for a private player.
Party leaders say Vaiko's credibility will take a beating now.
It was also for the first time that the people of the state denied any political party an absolute majority and DMK formed a minority government with outside support from its allies Congress, Pattali Makkal Katchi and Left parties.
The Congress secured the maximum of 48 seats.
In the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress won all 10 of the seats it contested.
"How can you expect Vaiko to accept my appeal to continue in the DPA when he has not respected the statement of his own mother," Karunanidhi asked.
DPA front leaders to meet on February 8
With the initial poll preparations in West Bengal almost complete, the Election Commission is all set to turn its focus on Tamil Nadu, another key state where assembly polls are due early in 2006.
Reservation would be provided to both Muslims and Christians and even if the DMK-led DPA did not come to power, it would fight for minority rights, Karunanidhi said.
MDMK General Secretary Vaiko meets Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and gets 10 seats more than what he wanted from DMK
While the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam contested it under the seven-party Democratic Progressive Alliance banner, her party contested the polls on its own, the CM said.
'Intense rivalry between the AIADMK and the DMK was standing in the way of the development of the state.'
Days after sending feelers to the Communist Party of India-Marxist and CPI which had quit the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Saturday said no talks had been held with them so far and declined to commit on the number of seats they would be offered if they joined the Democratic Progressive Alliance.
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Asserting that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had the capability to face the polls with its existing local allies, party president M Karunanidhi on Tuesday said there was no setback for his Democratic Progressive Alliance in the absence of a national party in the combine.
It looked as if the BJP was hoping to use Rajinikanth to press their seat-bargain with the AIADMK. Now with the Rajini bait gone, the question now is not how much the BJP would settle for, but how much the AIADMK would be ready to offer, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo M Karunanidhi on Monday renominated former telecom minister and 2G scam accused A Raja for the April 24 Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu. He also sent a strong message to rebels in the party by denying a ticket to his son M K Alagiri.
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