Criticising the United Progressive Alliance government for continuing to allow training of Sri Lankan defence personnel in the country despite opposition to it in Tamil Nadu, Dravida Munnetra Kazha, a key ally of the ruling front, on Monday said India should immediately stop such exercises.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday carried out searches at 19 places across Tamil Nadu, including the residence of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin in Chennai in a case of alleged tax evasion of imported cars.
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.
After a meeting with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Tuesday said the arrest of Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case would not have any impact on the ties between the two parties but insisted that the government would not interfere in the case.
Haasan, addressing office bearers in Chennai, said he has been invited by Rahul Gandhi to participate in the Yatra.
In the pre-budget measure, the government has announced an across-the-board increase in rail passenger fares with effect from January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore (Rs 66 billion) a year, the first such increase in a decade.
With DMK facing increasing heat on Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam over the 2G spectrum scam, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said on Monday that his party was not adamant in getting the telecom portfolio for A Raja during the United Progressive Alliance government formation in 2009.
Capitalising on the boycott by main opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Democratic Progressive Alliance on Friday expectedly swept the by-polls to five Tamil Nadu assembly seats, trouncing actor-politician Vijaykant's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam by impressive margins.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Congress were locked in a battle of attrition, a day after the regional party announced pulling out its ministers from the United Progressive Alliance government with neither party making any moves to break the deadlock in the aftermath of failure of seat-sharing talks for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Refuting speculations of split in the alliance between Congress and National Conference, Omar Abdullah said his party has no intention of leaving the alliance.
Though another 75 candidates are in the fray, the Elangovan-Thennaruasu fight has become a prestige battle for the DMK and AIADMK, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Notwithstanding his suspension from the party, three Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MPs met former Union Minister M K Alagiri at his residence in Madurai even as the rebel leader's supporters put up posters praising him on the occasion of his 63rd birthday on Thursday.
According to top sources in the government, Maran's return cannot be ruled out.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi, who had recently announced his party's decision to face civic polls without ally Congress, on Wednesday, said he was not sure if the national party would support DMK in the Tiruchirappalli (West) bye-election.
The alliance adopted a resolution to this effect and said its theme for the elections will be "Judega Bharat, Jeetega India, (India will unite, India will win)".
The Bharatiya Janata Party will on Thursday apprise President Pratibha Patil of the attacks on its headquarters in Tamil Nadu allegedly by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam workers and seek her intervention on the issue.
Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Thursday staged an unprecedented walkout from the state assembly following a face-off with Chief Minister M K Stalin over the former's customary address to members of the house in its first session of the year.
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.
Nitish has been engaging with national and regional party leaders in recent months as part of his mission to strengthen 'Opposition unity'.
It also promised to repeal the law banning religious conversions.
Monday's surprise meeting is an admission by the Bharatiya Janata Party that their purported strategy of hoping to ride the popular 'Modi wave' in a Tamil Nadu without Jaya and a bed-ridden Karunanidhi does not have much chance of success, observes 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.
Amid speculation that she will succeed A Raja as Telecom Minister, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi said a decision on the issue will be taken by party president M Karunanidhi, even as she made it clear that the alliance with Congress is "as strong as ever".
Seeking to exert pressure on the Centre, United Progressice Alliance's key ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Thursday said "any weakened response" by it on the Ram Sethu issue would only "expose the betrayal of hope and promise" given to Tamil Nadu.
By comparing I.N.D.IA. with banned terror outfits, Modi has exhibited the kind of nervousness never ever associated with him even at the height of the Gujarat riots, and certainly since his prime ministerial days, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
As leaders go, while Modi's visits to the state will be watched with curiosity, Rahul will need to be dislodged from the popular consciousness -- Tamil Nadu is one state where he's present, notes Aditi Phadnis.
A delegation of 21 Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc MPs will pay a two-day visit to Manipur beginning Saturday to assess the ground situation first-hand and then make recommendations to the government and Parliament for a solution to the problems in the violence-hit state.
The alliance captured civic bodies in Madurai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Salem, and Tiruchirappalli.
Continuing the suspense over its stand on an Opposition-sponsored resolution in Parliament against Foreign Direct Investment in retail, United Progressive Alliance ally Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam on Wednesday said its decision would be taken keeping in mind the interest of small and medium traders.
With this kind of coinage, the Opposition seems to be readily conceding the point that Modi is taller than all of them put together. So they need something bigger than themselves, collectively or not, to capture the voter imagination when it is about taking on Modi and the BJP in 2024, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
A high-pitched battle between party patriarch Karunanidhi and son MK Stalin for power and the failure to oust corrupt leaders and maintain a clean image has left the party in shambles, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
On Saturday, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ministers had pulled out from the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre. The DMK had also issued an ultimatum that they were willing to give the Congress 60 seats in the forthcoming assembly elections. If the Congress were to accept this offer then the DMK ministers would withdraw their resignations. If this offer was not accepted the DMK would prefer to give the Congress issue-based support in Parliament.
If either faction of the AIADMK failed to muster a floor majority, then the governor would be called upon to ask MK Stalin as the leader of the opposition if he would like to try his hand at government formation.
The DMK will not regret parting company with the Congress as Karunanidhi knows that in this era of coalitions, it is impossible for the Congress-led government to seek a third term, given its track of record of scams. Even otherwise, the Congress has no base in Tamil Nadu where it has been out of power since 1967, says S Murari
The DMK has Stalin and Stalin alone as the key campaigner. The rest of them all, including half-sister Kanimozhi, are tied down to their own constituencies while those like party treasurer and former minister S Duraimurugan, to those of their children's constituencies.
Sources said former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for early passage of the bill in the Lok Sabha during the upcoming session as the same has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha.
After Chief Minister Stalin moved a resolution, even as Ravi was speaking, that the speech was read, the governor walked out of the assembly.
Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday lashed out at opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties over Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's remarks against 'Sanatan Dharma', accusing them of insulting 'Sanatan Dharma' for votebank and appeasement politics.
'They are fighting it out, but they have deeply traumatised; they are alive and they are carrying on in life.'
Arvind Kejriwal warned the media that "very big forces" would try and break the INDIA alliance by showing that there was a lot of acrimony among them.
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