Leaders showered praises on Karunanidhi, the grand old man of Tamil Nadu politics who entered the state assembly in 1957 and was elected to the House on all the eleven occasions he contested the polls.
The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of J Jayalalitha.
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 will contest the April 13 Tamil Nadu assembly polls from the temple town of Srirangam in Tiruchirapalli district. Her name finds place in the first list of AIADMK candidates released on Wednesday.
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.
Top Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders, including party chief M Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin and daughter Kanimozhi, besides thousands of party workers today courted arrest across Tamil Nadu as part of a 'fill-the-jail' protest against the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government which has "foisted cases" against its cadres.
The entire opposition evicted from Tamil Nadu Assembly following uproar on the issue of lawyers-police clash in Madras High Court.
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.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam workers would thwart any move by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government to "usurp" the party headquarters Anna Arivalayam, alleged to have been built on grabbed land, DMK chief M Karunanidhi said on Friday night.
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.
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 O Panneerselvam-led AIADMK Cadres Rights Retrieval Committee has withdrawn from the BJP-led NDA coalition, a year after joining. The move follows meetings between Panneerselvam and DMK Chief Minister M K Stalin, fueling speculation about future alliances.
The Supreme Court overturned a Madras High Court order restricting the Tamil Nadu government from using the names and photographs of current and former chief ministers in welfare schemes. The court also imposed a fine on the AIADMK leader who filed the initial plea.
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).
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Member of Parliament Ganeshamurthy and Communist Party of India member of Legislative Assembly M Arumugam were arrested on Sunday along with 1,000 workers of different parties when they tried to cross to Kerala to stage a demonstration to protest that government's move to build a dam across Bhavani river in Chittoor.
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.
'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.
The chief contestants in the poll are the AINRC leader N Rangasamy heading the NDA in which the AINRC, AIADMK and BJP are the constituents.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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, 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.
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.
DMK party cadres and leaders want Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin's son Udhayanidhi to be elevated as deputy CM, a move which will be a 'huge advantage' for the party in the 2026 assembly elections, a senior party leader said on Thursday.
"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.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of DMK minister P G R Palanivelrajan.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
With Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam joining hands with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, rumours had it that DMDK will follow suit.
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.
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