Senior Congress leader to support AIADMK
It is a sea of men clad in veshtis with distinctive party colour border design seeking votes with a smile and folded hands for their party candidates. The town is abuzz, with electioneering at its peak, and teeming trendy cars criss-cross the busy roads and bylanes bringing in more and more leaders from elsewhere for campaign.
AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa constituted a six-member committee on Monday to hold seat-sharing discussions with alliance parties for assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala.
The BJP promised revival of the legislative council in Tamil Nadu, which was abolished decades ago by its ally, the ruling AIADMK, if their combine was voted to power in the coming assembly elections.
Sasikala, clad in a light green saree with a pink border, greeted supporters with folded hands. She rode to the party office in the car used by Jayalalithaa.
Stalin, in an interview to a daily, has refuted the FM's allegations, saying "everyone present in the Assembly knew it was a drama enacted by herself," referring to the late Jayalalithaa.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices R Subhash Reddy and A S took note of the submission of the main opposition party of the state that speaker has not been taking any decision on the MLAs for last three years and issued notices to him, assembly secretary and 11 lawmakers including O Panneerselvam.
Allotting seven seats to smaller allies, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Monday released the list naming candidates for the rest of 227 seats for which she held interviews for ticket aspirants from across Tamil Nadu in the past two weeks.
Ace Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is now in a wave of a storm for what appeared to be criticising the government of Tamil Nadu.
Left parties in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday made it clear that they were no more allies of the AIADMK and their joining hands for Lok Sabha elections was just a poll-time arrangement.
In what can be called as a major hint towards sewing up an unprecedented merger between two warring factions, the Sasikala and the O Panneerselvam groups of the All Anna India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam met on late Monday night in Chennai.
The ruling All Indian Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday retained both Kancheepuram and Gummidipoondi assembly seats in the byelection held on May 14.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
CM Stalin has a procedural problem. Nominating new ministers would entail his having to seek formal permission from governor R N Ravi. Stalin does not want to interact with the person of this governor, as far as possible, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former Chief Minister Panneerselvam's decision was made in the wake of an appeal by the BJP to put up a common candidate to defeat the DMK backed Congress candidate in the election.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa Monday announced five of her party nominees for the June 27 biennial election to the six Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu, giving V Maithreyan a successive term.
The campaign has gathered steam for the June 27 bypoll contest in Tamil Nadu featuring Chief Minister Jayalalithaa as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam workers are going all out to ensure her victory against the lone Communist Party of India challenger.
Seeking to mollify allies miffed over its 'unilateral' announcement of candidates for 160 constituencies in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK on Saturday concluded seat sharing arrangements with the Left parties and other allies for the April 13 assembly polls. The AIADMK is continuing its talks with the DMDK even as the process of filing of nominations for 234 seats begins on Saturday. The hectic political activity in the AIADMK camp continued till the wee hours of Saturday.
The AIADMK's Rajya Sabha members will join the DMK-led all-party delegation that will meet the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on June 8 to demand Cauvery water from Karnataka.
The campaign will reach a high decibel level next week when BJP state chief K Annamalai is expected to take up a blitzkrieg campaign against the ruling DMK.
Will Vijay will go the most successful MGR/Jayalalithaa way, or that of Vijayakanth, Seeman or Kamalahaasan, or will he end up as another Rajinikanth who cries wolf at the last minute and quits the scene even before it all had really begun, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
A Ganesh Nadar captures the mood and scenes from outside the hall in Vaanagaram where Sasikala was appointed as the new party chief.
After observing ritualistic stipulations for days, a massive "milk pot" procession was taken out in Madurai by AIADMK workers and supporters in which a sizable number of women cadres participated.
Already, there is a feeling even within the BJP's AIADMK ally that the BJP is overdoing things on the ED/I-T front, as corruption is not an election issue in the state -- as long as the people are otherwise not excessively unhappy with the governing party, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy delivered the verdict on Monday morning, which allowed the EPS faction to hold the GC meet, the supreme decision making body of the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu.
Dr V Maitreyan, leader of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's parliamentary party, on Monday arrived in Delhi with ten Members of Parliament to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram. The group of MPs will seek extra protection by personnel of the elite National Security Guards for AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, as she has received two threats to her life last week.
The travails due to enforcement of the eligibility test was because the AIADMK regime under K Palaniswami allowed the test to be conducted, despite DMK's efforts to keep it at bay, he said
OPS also requested the EC to restarin Sisikala's pick Dindigul C Sreenivasan from functioning as the party treasurer
The move of the Tamil Nadu government to release seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case generated heat in Lok Sabha on Thursday with Congress and AIADMK members clashing on the issue.
'The people of Tamil Nadu in particular Chennai know about the double standards of the BJP. Nothing will work for them here.'
Protests by supporters of ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and several other outfits, including party affiliated trade unions intensified across the state against the conviction of Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case, seeking her early release.
The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has bagged a mayor's post and is leading in all 10 corporations including Chennai as counting of votes, polled during the two-phased Tamil Nadu civic polls on October 17 and 19, was taken up on Friday.
Emerging from a "consultative" meeting chaired by Chief Minister E K Palaniswami, Finance Minister D Jayakumar declared that the "unanimous" decision was taken in tune with the aspirations of the party cadres and people.
AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa appealed to AIADMK cadres not to celebrate her birthday, which fell on 24 February, at a time when Tamil Nadu was 'moving towards the path of destruction due to DMK's misgovernance".
Pushpa is facing sexual harassment case filed by her two domestic aides in Tamil Nadu.
The BJP has nothing to lose after a point. For the DMK it is a difficult choice, as it would not want to give too much of space to a 'national party' lest the 'Dravidian duel' of the past decades should be lost forever, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A poster put out by an expelled AIADMK party man in Chennai threatening Kannadigas living in Tamil Nadu if convicted party chief Jayalalithaa was not released from jail has created a flutter amidst the common populace.
AIADMK leaders said his party was not opposed to the Ram Sethu project, but was against its current alignment.
'As Karunanidhi and Ramadoss flagged the law and order issue, Subramanian Swamy said Home Minister Rajnath Singh should send Chief Minister O Panneerselvam a directive under Article 246 of the Constitution. Swamy also dangled the fear of Article 356 over the state government.'
Madurai (South) MLA SS Saravanan alleged that party MLAs "were being detained" at the Koovathur resort and claimed he had given a slip by wearing a "t-shirt and Bermuda (shorts)".
