The 70-year old first time MP, who was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals on August 10 after he tested positive for coronavirus, succumbed to the illness, a party spokesperson said.
The 70-year old first time MP, and working president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, who was admitted to Apollo Hospitals on August 10 after he tested positive for coronavirus, succumbed to the illness on Friday.
Six years after it came to light, all nine men arrested in the sensational Pollachi sexual assault and extortion case were convicted and sentenced to "life imprisonment till death" by a Mahila Court here on Tuesday.
Vasanthakumar, who started his career as a salesman, today owns a retail empire.
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com recalls how Kanyakumari MP H Vasanthakumar, the first parliamentarin to die of Covid-related complications, would address his constituents by their names, making it a point to ask after their work and family.
Pon Radhakrishnan is also a Union minister of state. His opponent is the richest candidate in Tamil Nadu.
A Ganesh Nadar and Saisuresh Sivaswamy, on the campaign trail with H Vasanthakumar, the Congress's businessman candidate in Tamil Nadu.
Following up with the release of its first list of six candidates for the polls on Friday, the AIADMK firmed up the electoral agreement with the Saffron party late Friday night.
A mix of industrialists and businessmen, who have inherited riches or rose from humble backgrounds and even endured boom and bust cycles, the top five MPs are illustrative of how the political stock of the wealthy is increasing rapidly.
It is increasingly clear that for the BJP to try and establish itself as an electoral force in Tamil Nadu, the party has to come out of the old Brahminical mould, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
After days of deliberations, a point of conclusion was reached late Saturday night and Congress leader and Tamil Nadu in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters that the agreement was signed in "a spirit of cooperation" when the country was facing a 'threat' from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
For a party that has adopted the successful social re-engineering model from Gujarat, Rajasthan and across the rest of the 'Hindi belt' over the past decades, Tamil Nadu continues to remain a tricky customer, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
It was a mixed outing for super rich candidates as five of them emerged victorious and an equal number suffered defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leaders P Uthayakumar, V Ganabathirau, T Vasanthakumar and lawyers R Kenghadharan and M Manoharan were detained on December 13, 2007 on the grounds that they were posing a threat to national security.
Vasanthakumar Mysoremath goes round urban centres in the state during elections and tells voters: "Vote you must to prove that you cannot be taken for granted."
For now, the BJP's strategy for Khushbu seems to be one of denial -- denying the rival Congress in the state and also at the national-level a Muslim voice acceptable to Hindu audiences and TV news-watchers. This is much less than the induction of DMK veterans like Duraiswamy and Selvam, who still have a greater chances of winning assembly seats,, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
With 200 MPs out of 785 above the age of 65, there is a serious shadow of COVID-19 looming over the monsoon session Of Parliament.
"A stand was taken to seek his (Dhanapal's) removal based on the circumstances at that point of time. The party, however, now feels that the motion was not warranted," Stalin said on the opening day of the assembly session in Chennai.
The CBI has began the probe on the request of the Tamil Nadu government on March 12.
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and the Union Territory of neighbouring Puducherry are likely to go to polls in April or May.
Counting of votes in all elections will be held on May 2.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi has convened a meeting of the party's strategy group on September 8, the sources said. Opposition leaders are keen that various like-minded parties should work closely with each other to take on the government in Parliament.
Higher education policy may be at the core of the Tamil Nadu assembly polls next May, with a potential to break the ties between the ruling AIADMK in the state and the BJP counterpart at the national level, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The overall voting percentage in the bypolls to 51 assembly seats was nearly 56.84 per cent, the Election Commission said while releasing data available till 7 pm, adding that the polling passed off peacefully.
In its chargesheet filed in a special court in Srinagar, the CBI alleged that Abdullah as the association president at that time had connived with the treasurer of JKCA and others for undue siphoning off and misappropriation of funds, a CBI spokesperson said in New Delhi.
At a time when senior Congress leaders are shying away from contesting the April 24 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and despite a lack of enthusiasm among cadres, there is a race to get tickets to contest from select constituencies perceived as "winnable", party sources said.
23 of the DMK's 24 candidates are crorepatis!
It does not stop here, though. According to field information, state ministers, AIADMK candidates and campaigners are asking BJP cadres accompanying them not to carry party flags at common rallies and also avoid their saffron shawl on those occasions. BJP cadres are also asked to stay out of the common campaign when it enters a minority-dominated areas, especially of Muslims, and re-join later, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A division bench comprising Justices N Paul Vasanthakumar and K Ravichandrababu stated on Thursday this while quashing an order for cancelling a community certificate issued to a Dalit panchayat president who reconverted from Christianity.
The HC also declined the plea to prosecute the officers who ordered use of pellet guns or fired them.
The court asked the Centre to explain why the injuries suffered by people are above the knees.
But the question before the leadership will be whether to retain the BJP alliance or dump it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
J&K high court has said the state government should discontinue use of pellet guns for crowd control during law and order situation in view of the statement made by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Parliament.
The DMK combine has won 37 of the 38 LS constituencies in Tamil Nadu, and bagged 13 of the 22 assembly bypolls. What swept away the AIADMK-BJP alliance in the southern state was not dravidian ideology but job loss and graft bias, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
As the dust finally settles on the outcome of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and Bharatiya Janata Party along with its NDA allies emerges as the clear winner, here is a list of who won in each of the 7 phases of elections.
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