For now, the DMK can be expected to sound the bugle for Opposition unity at the national level, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Panneerselvam had opposed the petition saying the whip was issued only to the 122 MLAs who were then camping in a resort and not his erstwhile group.
Modi shared the warmth of Chief Minister M K Stalin who briefly held the PM's hand and patted the back of the latter's palm while walking through the displays exhibited at the new Chennai airport terminal.
According to a senior Congress leader, the constituents of the opposition alliance intend to move forward with the theme "Main Nahin, Hum (We, Not Me)" at the meeting.
24 hours was all it took for the Congress to overturn its decision to boycott the TV debates on the exit poll results. Sudhir Bisht offers an explanation.
The man who threw the petrol bomb was immediately overpowered, they said
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Tuesday chose to keep the cards close to his chest on the issue of which political outfit his party would strike an alliance to fight next year's Lok Sabha polls.
Will Foreign Minister Mr. Jaishankar please refer to the RTI reply dated 27-1-2015...The Reply justified the circumstances under which India acknowledged that a small island belonged to Sri Lanka," Chidambaram said.
Bharatiya Janata Party's southern ally Al India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Wednesday reiterated its stand against the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code.
For the first time since 1985, Tamil Nadu has voted in favour of an incumbent party which has been a shock to those in Anna Arivalayam -- the office of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Chennai.
It is not much of an issue just now, but it could become one if the idea of caste census captures socio-political imagination, going beyond electoral tags and identities, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Nachiappan, however, ruled out an alliance with the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, as it was a "replica of the Bharatiya Janata Party".
AIADMK insiders see the very idea of an NDA conclave as a measure of the BJP's current electoral assessment, stemming from relative weakness in 2024 compared to 2014 and 2019. In their reckoning, the BJP now needs allies more than the other way round, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ruling constituent Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Thursday joined the opposition in stalling proceedings in Lok Sabha and leading street protest in New Delhi on the issue of the new sugarcane policy and vowed to struggle till the ordinance to fix a uniform price is withdrawn.
We don't have confidence in the chief minister, the MLAs said.
Key United Progressive Alliance ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party were on the same page on Sunday in their criticism of the Centre and the Congress over the handling of the Telangana statehood issue, which has spawned a crisis in Andhra Pradesh.
"The DMK is not worried a wee bit," he said on the ED searches. Such an action by the ED was 'usual, ordinary and a drama' enacted to divert attention.
He will be remembered for mustering the courage to take on former chief ministers and the state's political heavyweights M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa in the political arena on his own terms and also hold his own against them.
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.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has referred MPs' complaints on the issue involving BJP member Ramesh Bidhuri's use of objectionable words against BSP's Danish Ali to the Privileges Committee, sources said on Thursday.
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.
The House had to be adjourned twice in the afternoon amid din over the issue and finally for the day, minutes after it reassembled at 3 pm.
'They know that if they do not tie up with the Congress, then the minorities will move to the Congress.'
Upset over political developments in Maharashtra, the Congress and other opposition parties boycotted Constitution Day celebrations in the Central Hall of Parliament and held a joint protest in front of the Ambedkar statue inside Parliament complex.
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.
Even as the BJP is expected to win the vice-presidential poll, ppposition hopes to make it yet another display of its unity, reports Archis Mohan.
The bill seeks to reserve one-third of all seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the state legislative assemblies.
Stalin, along with senior leader K N Nehru began the fast at 9 am at Uzhavar Sandhai grounds.
Reacting to the results, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that in the by-elections held on 13 seats in seven states, the people of the country have given their support to the INDIA bloc.
'The PM who is first among equals, who has to listen to others, take their point of view into account and who would have to be a good manager'
"The protest is a big success and there is a wave of dissatisfaction against the government," DMK chief M Karunanidhi said claiming over two lakh party workers courted arrest but police put the figure at 85,000.
With the assembly polls only two years away, in 2026, any demoralising defeat in 2024, would challenge not only the party's continued relevance but also EPS's leadership, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Even as the United Progressive Alliance government battles protests by Opposition BJP over the selection of Telecom Secretary PJ Thomas as Central Vigilance Commissioner, it has now been stung by one of its allies, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is reportedly upset over the lack of courtesy extended by the government on the appointment.
Calculated or otherwise, if Azhagiri's firing of the first salvo after Karunanidhi's death does not create some space for him to politico-electorally exploit at a later date, there may not be any space left for him at all, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked his ministers to strongly refute opposition leaders on their controversial comments on Sanatan Dharma and expose them but told his ministerial colleagues to avoid the political row around the Bharat issue noting that it has been the country's ancient name, sources said.
Close to half of the total 543 Lok Sabha seats are bracing for multi-cornered fight this time, making the contest way more interesting and intense than it was in the 2019 elections.
Targeting the Congress, the PM said those who ruled Madhya Pradesh for a long time did nothing else other than corruption and crime.
The question wafting in the winds over the Vaigai riverbed is, has Karunanidhi's disgraced son accepted his fate? A Ganesh Nadar and Saisuresh Sivaswamy find out.
Congress and other parties kept insisting on their demand for suspension of business so the issue could be taken up.