Palaniswami, a known Sasikala loyalist and a five-time MLA, is the party's strongman from Salem district.
A record 74.4 per cent turnout of voters marked the bypoll to R K Nagar assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu, from where Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa is seeking re-election.
A day before the crucial trust vote in the Tamil Nadu assembly, Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar checks out the mood in the AIADMK hq.
He said whoever supported the Palaniswami rule cannot go to the people for votes.
Nine hundred and forty-seven people are said to have died in grief after J Jayalalithaa's demise on December 5. But how true is this claim?
The passenger, reportedly a party worker, who was standing alongside Stalin, was then asked to move from there.
'Votes-for-notes no longer only means cash and goodies for fence-sitting voters,' points out Sunil Sethi.
K Pandiarajan has filed a petition in the apex court in which he has sought a direction for quashing Speaker P Dhanapal's decision rejecting the demand for a secret ballot to determine the outcome of the floor test.
Vaiko's stock dwindles as the DMK's poaching of his cadre continues unabated. R Ramasubramanian reports from Chennai.
'Everybody knows Baalu and all the trouble he caused in UPA-I. The AIADMK thinks it can win with the distribution of money. It may work in some parts, but not everywhere.' Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar visits Tamil Nadu's rice bowl where a former Cabinet minister is fighting for political survival.
In its first public protest, the O Panneerselvam-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam faction on Wednesday observed a day-long fast across Tamil Nadu demanding a probe into the death of J Jayalalithaa.
A grim-faced Panneerselvam, who was also seen sporting a beard, was sworn in around 1.15 am by Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at the Raj Bhavan amidst a scene of gloom.
The 71-year-old Dalit leader is expected to have a smooth sailing in the event of an election.
'Just tell me who gave you the money and how much. I won't tell anyone that you told me,' the policemen tells the young lady voter. 'You think they give their name and address when they give you money?' she replies.
What is the man who hopes to replace Jayalalithaa like as a campaigner?
'There are many people like me who were kept away from Jayalalithaa.' 'There is a coterie who did not allow her to meet people.'
M Karunanidhi was a masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, wielding considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time and sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
'I don't think after Amma, the cult of personality will endure.' 'I think there will be a shift back to the politics of ideology and principles rather than a cult of personality.'
'More than 90 per cent of the party cadres are with OPS.'
The truce, even if it is not permanence peace, will come under stress and test during the pending polls to rural local bodies in nine revenue districts and urban polls across the state, including those for 16 municipal corporations, starting with Chennai, the oldest and largest, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
About 200 employees were detained across the state in connection with incidents related to strike
'Jayalalithaa could not do what MGR did, and Sasikala will not be able to do what Jayalalithaa did.'
'Sasikala went to jail in a 19-year-old case.' 'Dinakaran went to jail in a case of attempting to bribe the Election Commission.' 'How can you link the BJP to these two cases?'
The twin announcements have virutally cleared the decks for the merger of the two factions.
Sandhya Ravishankar describes the thorny relationship between the two political titans of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, both now part of the ages.
'Nobody is telling you not to speak or learn your mother tongue. But making other languages an emotional issue is wrong.'
Panneerselvam said Sasikala is only a 'temporary general secretary' and proper elections have to be held to elect new party chief.
Jayalalithaa, who took oath as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the sixth time, said if she would have been informed she would have instructed the officers in charge of the arrangements to provide a seat to Stalin in the first row, relaxing the norms in the Protocol Manual.
With election fever rising in Tamil Nadu, Karunanidhi in court promised to be more than just a regular court hearing.
Chief Minister MK Stalin has shown that he is cut from a different cloth when it comes to embracing what is current, modern and absolutely necessary. Thus, even while retaining the spirit and content of the pan-Tamil, Dravidian socio-political and socio-economic ideology to the 't', his government has also acknowledged the need to accepting scientifically-proven facts in operational matters, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Shiv Sena is leading currently in terms of criminal candidates. Out of the 14 declared by them in the first list 12 have a criminal background, as per the Association for Democratic Reforms.
Former Union Minister and the Congress candidate for the Mayiladuthurai Lok Sabha seat, Mani Shankar Aiyar strongly believes that the good work done by him as an MP for the constituency over the past two decades will fetch him a comfortable victory in the upcoming polls.
The 65-year-old leader's ascent as the DMK chief heralds a new era in the Dravidian party, making him only the second man after his father to be elected as party president.
The interim order was passed on petitions by Stalin and Dinakaran loyalist MLA P Vetrivel.
Display of Jayalalithaa's portrait in the Republic Day tableaux in Chennai has stirred up a row
All set to take over as the Leader of the Opposition in the 15th Tamil Nadu sssembly, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam scion M K Stalin on Tuesday vowed to do justice to the post and take up people's issues in a constructive way in the legislature.
With Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections, results for 51 assembly and two Lok Sabha bypolls spread across 18 states were declared on Thursday. Here are state-wise results of the bypolls.
Scripting history, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday stormed to power in Assam bagging a government in the north east for the first time dethroning the Congress which also lost Kerala while Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee retained power in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal with spectacular victories.
Special Public Prosecutor B V Acharya has advised the Karnataka government to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against acquittal of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa and three others in the disproportionate assets case, saying it was a "fit case" to do so.
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