'Both the DMK and ADMK are equally to blame.' 'When the question is violence against Dalits, they don't take measures to protect Dalits.'
In the continuing crackdown by All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam government on land grabbing, former Transport Minister and senior Dravida Munetra Kazhagam leader K N Nehru and two others were arrested in Tiruchirappalli on Thursday, while another functionary was taken into custody in Coimbatore.
"It is me in the video, but the voice is not mine," Saravanan told reporters.
For now, the DMK can be expected to sound the bugle for Opposition unity at the national level, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Congress on Thursday secured a seat in the present Bengal assembly as its candidate Bayron Biswas won the Sagardighi bypoll, defeating the nearest rival of the Trinamool Congress by 22,980 votes.
Leaders from 26 opposition parties, in power individually or in alliance in Delhi and 10 states, are meeting in Bengaluru to discuss strategy to take on the Narendra Modi-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
However, the tilting factor still remains: Can the rivalling 'Modi brand' of 'soft Hindutva' and 'hard-sell nationalism' garner more votes for the NDA in Tamil Nadu, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday alleged that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy issued "illegal" red sand mining licenses to his MP son, relatives and some benami holders, and that huge amount of "hawala" funds generated from this mining business was used to purchase companies abroad.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday warned the Bharatiya Janata Party not to 'provoke' the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, saying it will not be able to 'bear the consequences' and that his party also knows 'all types of politics', escalating his attack on the saffron party after the arrest of his cabinet colleague V Senthil Balaji.
Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Friday re-allocated the portfolios held by arrested state Minister V Senthil Balaji, on the recommendations of Chief Minister M K Stalin but "has not agreed" to the minister continuing in the cabinet, the Raj Bhavan said.
After Chief Minister Stalin moved a resolution, even as Ravi was speaking, that the speech was read, the governor walked out of the assembly.
Neither the ruling DMK nor the fractured AIADMK Opposition anticipated that an assembly by-election would put them both to test, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stalin said one cannot and should not decide the mood of the entire country based on the results of one state elections.
'Last night someone threw stones at my house at 11 pm. My car was also smashed.'
A day after Election Commission announced bypoll for the RK Nagar assembly constituency from where chief minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa is likely to contest, DMK chief Karunanidhi on Wednesday said his party has decided not to contest the by-election.
ndependent of the political fallout, which Stalin has sought to arrest through the withdrawal of the measures as fast as they were introduced, there are concerns about the way those decisions came to be taken, without adequate application of mind, not in official terms but in political and electoral contexts, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
High voter turnout was recorded in most of the seven assembly constituencies in six states where by-elections were held on Tuesday.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam legislator and the party's youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin was sworn in as minister in Chennai on Wednesday by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi.
After an initial close fight, AINRC managed to win only eight seats, including the Indira Nagar constituency by party founder and Chief Minister N Rangasamy.
Thulasenthirapuram and Painganadu villages in Tamil Nadu celebrate their daughter's victory.
'The others have been looting the people all these years. If you don't do that, you can do a lot for the people,' says Tamil star politician Vijayakanth.
We don't have confidence in the chief minister, the MLAs said.
Former Chief Minister Panneerselvam could muster only 11 votes, ending the prolonged stalemate triggered by his rebellion.
Ahead of the day-long Opposition meeting on Friday, Samvad Bhavan, Rajkiye Atithisala and Sadaquat Ashram have got a facelift.
An interesting multi-cornered contest is on the cards for the urban local body elections in Tamil Nadu scheduled for February 19 with opposition parties, which were with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam till a few days ago, set to take on the ruling DMK banking on their respective party's own strength.
Following his resignation, the second this week, the Congress' strength further slipped to 13, while the opposition has 14 MLAs in the 33-member house which has five vacancies.
His likable boy-next-door face and casual approach to public speaking have a unique appeal for the younger generation, but it stops there, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'DMK is taking a wrong image of BJP to the people.'
Asserting that Jayalalithaa and her close confidante Sasikala owned the estate in Nilgiris district, Karunanidhi said he had released documentary evidence to prove that the duo invested Rs 3.60 crore in the property.
The BJP and the AIADMK are unable to sort out ideological differences, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Bypolls in three assembly constituencies in as many states passed off peacefully on Monday with around over 70 per cent voter turnout, though some technical glitches in electronic voting machine were reported in Tamil Nadu and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal alleged that the Central Reserve Police Force was "influencing" voters.
What some of our leaders were up to over the weekend...
Modi's BJP has promised more revdis or freebies for these assembly elections than ever before, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Madras high court on Thursday ordered issuing notice to deposed All Indi Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Paneerselvam and his relatives on a criminal revision case initiated on its own, relating to their discharge in a disproportionate wealth case by a trial court in 2012.
Opposition parties on Sunday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party after Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar and eight others were inducted into the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government, saying the ruling party's 'washing machine' has resumed its operation to clean tainted leaders and it was an 'ED-facilitated power grab'.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Thursday said his decision to step down from the post was taken for the future of the party and to create a new leadership.
Disproportionate assets of Kamaraj stood at Rs 58.44 crore and he has been booked for criminal conspiracy and offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, according to the FIR.
Palaniswami has won from Edappadi four times (1989, 1991, 2011 and 2016) and the region is among the strongholds of the ruling party.
"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.
Counting of votes will be held on Thursday for 51 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 18 states where by-elections were held two days ago.
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