Opposition and members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G on Wednesday demanded the ouster of chairperson P C Chacko for being "highly partisan" and asked Speaker Meira Kumar to replace him with a new chief. The JPC has 30 members, including Chacko.
The entire opposition evicted from Tamil Nadu Assembly following uproar on the issue of lawyers-police clash in Madras High Court.
Dubbing Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam as an "evil force", All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday accused it of 'conniving' with ally Congress and the United Progressive Alliance government to create hurdles in Tamil Nadu's progress.
The stage is set for the second by-poll of the year in Tamil Nadu at Pudukottai on Tuesday where former friends All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam will fight each other, with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam choosing to skip the contest.
India on Thursday continued to be evasive on its stand to be adopted on the resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Commission, triggering an angry walk out in Lok Sabha by United Progressive Alliance constituent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which was joined by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal-United.
Besides Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who won from his native Tiruvarur by a huge margin of over 50,000 votes, other ministers who saved the embarrassment to DMK are his son M K Stalin (Kolathur), Durai Murugan (Katpadi), I Periyasamy (Athoor) E V Velu (Tiruvannamalai), Thangam Thennarasu (Tiruchuli), T P M Mohideen Khan (Palayamkottai) Suba Thangavelan (Tiruvadanai) and K Ramachandran (Coonoor).
Actor-politician Vijayakant's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, launched in 2005 amid fanfare and claims of being an alternative to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, seems to have failed to make much of an impact at the grassroots level, with the party managing just two per cent of total votes polled in last week's civic polls. The ruling AIADMK romped home in all 10 corporations besides many other local bodies.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi, his son M K Stalin. and Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam chief Vijayakanth spent far less than the limit set by the Election Commission for poll-related expenses during the April 13 assembly elections.
For the second consecutive day, Lok Sabha on Thursday failed to transact any business as the proceedings remained paralysed, with angry members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam disrupting the House, seeking an international inquiry into atrocities against ethnic Tamils in the island nation.
In New Delhi The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam during winter session of Parliament would maintain neutrality, but will oppose the United Progressive Alliance-II's stance on price rise and the Kudankulam issues.
"Our traditional stand has been that we have never supported any country-specific resolution at the UNHCHR," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha as DMK, AIADMK and CPI members rushed to the Well raising slogans on the issue.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Karunanidhi has summoned all DMK MPs in Chennai on Tuesday, to discuss the nuke liability bill, common enterance test for medical students other political issues affecting the state.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Members of Parliament on Thursday shouted slogans over Sri Lankan Tamil issue during the maiden address of President Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament.
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu, led by All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, on Tuesday appealed to President Pratibha Patil to give consent for use of Tamil as the official language in Madras high court before attending the World Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore this week.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa on Wednesday alleged that the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had indulged in various electoral malpractices to secure victory in the bye-elections to the Tiruchendur and Vandavasi assembly constituencies.
In the backdrop of more and more Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders coming under the police net for their alleged roles in land grabbing cases, a party advocate has moved the National Human Rights Commission alleging violation of rights and charging ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam with indulging in vendetta politics.
In the continuing crackdown by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government on land grabbing, the personal assistant of former Dravida Munnetra Kazhaga minister Pongalur N Palanisamy and a DMK general council member were among four people arrested on Friday on charges of land grabbing at Chettipalayam area on the city's outskirts. The arrests followed a complaint from one Gunasekaran of Peramanallur near Tirupur.
In the continuing crackdown by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government on land grabbing, a former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member of Legislative Assembly was on Tuesday arrested for his alleged role in a case. Ranganathan was arrested in Chennai based on a complaint, the police said.
As reports of tension prevailed on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border over the Cauvery water row, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Monday said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu should not give room to turn the feeling of "bitterness" among people of the states into "enmity".
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday alleged that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was linked with the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in an "indirect way."
What will be the effect of Jayalalithaa first salvo against Rajapaksa? How will it impact India's Sri Lanka policy? These are some of the questions likely to be debated more frequently in the coming months.
While Jayalalithaa issued an open letter to Vaiko, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Communist Party of India and the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi appealed Vaiko to rejoin the alliance.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Jayalalithaa on Wednesday claimed that the Tamil Nadu government had refused to pay the daily allowance to security personnel on poll duty and alleged that the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam might create violence in the event of their absence.
Poongothai first successfully contested from this constituency in 2006, two years after her father Aruna, a Law Minister in the 1996-2001 DMK government, was killed allegedly by his rivals in his native place. When he was killed, Aladi Aruna was not with the DMK.
Days after raising in the Parliament the issue of alleged tapping of telephone lines of their party leader J Jayalalithaa, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to order a judicial probe into the issue and initiate action against police officials conducting surveillance of her residence.
"By making this assertion, Karunanidhi is not expressing his concern for the poor and downtrodden in the state. On the contrary he was only publicly reinforcing the rich-poor divide," she said in a statement in Chennai.
Ousting Congress, All India NR Congress - All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam combine on Friday secured a majority winning 17 of the 26 seats for which results were declared and was leading in two in the elections to the 30-member Puducherry Assembly.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday repealed the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council Act, thereby laying the foundation of a political strategy to woo the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. After Home Minister P Chidambaram proposed the agenda and sought the views of other ministers in the Cabinet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave his go-ahead for the repeal.
Buckling under pressure from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday decided to hand over to the Central Bureau of Investigation five cases regarding repeated death threats issued to its party chief Jayalalithaa. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government's decision comes a day after an AIADMK delegation made yet another representation to the chief secretary and home secretary demanding a CBI probe into the threats.
The party said though actor-turned-politician Vijaykant, who founded the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, speaks about people's problems, his economic policies were not known. The Pattali Makkal Katchi was also raising a lot of people's problems
Even a day after the filing of nominations opened for April 13 assembly polls began in Tamil Nadu, the political scene remains unclear, with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam still struggling to put the alliance led by it in shape.
The Congress on Monday announced its alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam would continue for Lok Sabha polls, setting at rest speculation about the future of the tie-up in the wake of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's overture to the lead United Progressive Alliance party.
To all those who were expecting the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance to do well (some even predicted a sweep), the Tamil Nadu results came as a big surprise. What went in favour of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance at the last minute is anybody's guess.
The continuing exodus has left the party short of leaders, especially those credited with "excellent" organisational skills. The local strongmen, who switched sides, are reaping rich rewards in DMK.
The Bharatiya Janata Party garnered five seats, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got three, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got two apiece and the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena got one each respectively as all 30 made it to the Upper House after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations drew to close on Thursday evening.
The election for six Rajya Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu is turning into a high-impact zone.
'Captain,' as the actor is called by his admirers, has emerged as a potential alternative to both the DMK and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
A Ganesh Nadar reports on the Jayalalitha government's crackdown on land grabbing in Tamil Nadu. Many of the accused are DMK leaders, including former ministers and MLAs.
Palaniswami has won from Edappadi four times (1989, 1991, 2011 and 2016) and the region is among the strongholds of the ruling party.
J Jayalalithaa's All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has stayed away from by-elections in Tamil Nadu since its defeat in the assembly polls in 2006. However, in the forthcoming by-elections for Thiruchendur and Vandavasi constituencies, the party will take on the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam with a sole motive.
