There have been incidents of public threats to the life of Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi but a 'studied indifference' by the state police to the matter has vitiated his security, the Raj Bhavan alleged.
If the already demoralised Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam cadre, beaten worse by the shocking parliamentary poll debacle in May 2014 thought that the political set-back suffered by rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa Jayaram, in the light of a Bangalore court ordering a jail-term for her in September was a boon for their leadership, it's not to be.
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered stunning losses in three Hindi heartland states, partial poll results showed Tuesday, forcing the party to rely on allies to form the government after a bitter and divisive election that was projected as a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.
In the clearest-ever hint, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Thursday indicated that his younger son and treasurer M K Stalin would be successor in the party after him.
'This is total fraud. You are showing me the slip of my vote but not counting it so this is fraud.'
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Merchandise plays a key role in creating buzz about a specific party.'
Karunanidhi, 94, died at the Kauvery hospital on Tuesday following prolonged illness.
If the Congress reached 90, it would have a pretty good chance of holding the BJP below the 272 mark. A hundred seats will rock national politics, argues Shekhar Gupta.
'Are we so ready to believe that in this country whose virtues we constantly shout from the rooftops, there is no single person -- other than Modi -- in a minimum of 272 elected MPs with the talent and ability to lead this country?' asks Prem Panicker.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Tuesday welcomed the decision of a Delhi court to grant bail to former telecom minister A Raja, who was arrested 15 months ago in connection with the 2G spectrum scam.
They said they will raise issues related to rising prices, unemployment, corruption and caste census.
We supported the Panneerselvam-led government on certain people's issues, on certain policies and Bills, Stalin said.
Palanivel Thiaga Rajan was on the hit-list, not because the chief minister was unhappy with his performance, but because there were constant complaints from other ministers that he was sitting on their files far too long, observes 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.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi on Wednesday congratulated Narendra Modi on being elected as the BJP parliamentary party leader and continued to praise the prime minister-elect for his "humble beginning, intelligence and hard work."
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.
The Opposition INDIA bloc on Friday finalised a 14-member coordination-cum-election strategy committee comprising members of various parties, and it will function as the alliance's highest decision-making body and start work on seat-sharing immediately, sources 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.
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.
Rahul Gandhi visited ailing DMK chief M Karunanidhi at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai.
At the end of the day, Stalin expressing solidarity with an arrested colleague is one thing, especially if he too felt that the minister had been wronged, but for him to retain the person in office sets a bad precedent, which would not go unnoticed by voters, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stalin said that Modi should allow the farmers to meet him and offer a consoling solution at the earliest.
'He has to listen to his body and his mind and he decided to leave politics.'
Words and actions like those of R N Ravi and a vocal section of the state BJP have only added to Tamil fears and suspicions, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi was re-elected as party president for the 11th time in a row by the newly constituted general council on Friday.
'The governor was a senior IPS officer who should know the Constitution.'
The man who threw the petrol bomb was immediately overpowered, they said
The top court's remark came while setting aside an order of the Madras high court which directed the Tamil Nadu government to create the posts under the designation.
Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
If Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai bought it in 2015, did he get prior approval from the Union home ministry, and did he include it in his annual wealth returns, sections of the media want to know. N Sathiya Moorthy on the curious case of the 'Rafale' watch.
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.
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan on Monday demanded a thorough probe regarding the alleged attack on Bihar migrant workers and bring the culprits to book, and ensure a hospitable atmosphere for the workforce in Tamil Nadu.
Vellore is one of the two seats that the DMK alliance won by the narrowest of margins in 2019. For the DMK's vote-score to be so low in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population has not missed the BJP strategists' eyes, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Kharge said the leaders of INDIA parties have come together as democracy is under threat under the Bharatiya Janata Party government.
The video recording of the House proceedings on February 18 must be from the commencement till the end, the court said.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi shared moments together, enquiring about each other's health and strategising on opposition unity on the first day of the Bengaluru summit, sources told PTI.
'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.
