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)".
Farmers and opposition parties in Tamil Nadu on Monday staged rail roko agitation at various places in the state demanding the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board immediately.
'Everybody knows Baalu and all the trouble he caused in UPA-I. The AIADMK thinks it can win with the distribution of money. It may work in some parts, but not everywhere.' Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar visits Tamil Nadu's rice bowl where a former Cabinet minister is fighting for political survival.
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.
As the Opposition held its first meeting on the Presidential polls and names of Farooq Abdullah and Gopalkrishna Gandhi also cropped up, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party reached out to several parties across the political spectrum to build a consensus choice with senior party leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh speaking to Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge (Congress), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party) and Naveen Patnaik (Biju Janata Dal).
Unlike the regimes of Jayalalitha, Palaniswami and Karunanidhi, ministers are actually getting to make decisions on their own, with the unmentioned rider that they would be held responsible and accountable, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Likening the situation in the country to a "social emergency", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made it clear that the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 cannot be lifted in one go on April 14, asserting that the priority of his government is to "save each and every life".
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Congress alliance appeared headed for a break with six Union Ministers of the regional party set to resign on Monday even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee appealed to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to reconsider his decision to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance government.
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.
Leaders of various opposition parties on Sunday demanded that issues of price rise, 'Agnipath' scheme as well as the alleged misuse of investigative agencies be taken up in Parliament and also raised objections to the list of 'unparliamentary words' at an all-party meeting convened by the government ahead of the Monsoon Session.
While the DMK dubbed the meeting as only a 'courtesy visit', Rao did not meet the waiting reporters.
According to state government sources, not only did the governor insert some corrections, but he also initialled the final draft after those corrections had been made, reveals N Sathiya Moorthy.
The much-touted Food Security Bill, which proposes to give the country's three-fourth population the right to highly-subsidised food, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, with the government rejecting apprehensions that it would impinge upon the rights of states.
Distribution of sweets, welfare assistance and blood donation by party workers were among the highlights of celebrations of the 93rd birthday of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi on Friday.
Chowdhury said the family faces threat to life and the cover by the elite security organisation should not have been withdrawn.
Earlier, KCR had met West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee as part of efforts to build a non-Congress, non-BJP third front ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not present at the all-party meeting convened by the government.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M K Stalin on Monday met his half-sister and party member of Parliament Kanimozhi, arrested in connection with the 2G scam, at Tihar jail in New Delhi.
The Opposition alleged that without any provocation from the Opposition, "outsiders who were not part of Parliament security were brought in to manhandle the Opposition leaders and members, including women Parliamentarians who were only protesting against the Government's conduct, highhandedness and muzzling of the voice".
The controversial report of the JPC, which gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the 2G spectrum scam saying he was "misled" by the then Telecom Minister A Raja, was on Monday tabled in Lok Sabha amid pandemonium.
In a telephonic talk with DMK parliamentary party leader and Union Minister T R Baalu on Sunday night, Sonia said, "Let us continue to concentrate on pubic service without being cowed down by such threats."
MK Stalin's ruling AIDMK rival does not thankfully face such problems as he did, but its problems could be worse if saner counsel does not prevail between now and the assembly polls, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
The AIADMK swept the polls winning 37 of the 39 seats, leaving DMK, its rivals, and the BJP to do a serious rethinking before the assembly elections in 2016, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Opposition parties on Tuesday asked the government to call an all-party meeting to resolve the current impasse in Parliament, while sticking to their demands for a discussion on Pegasus snooping issue and a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the matter.
While Rahul Gandhi led Congress has a pan Indian presence, Naidu described regional leaders, including himself, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Stalin and Deve Gowda as strong leaders in their respective states, who are coming together against the BJP.
The truce, even if it is not permanence peace, will come under stress and test during the pending polls to rural local bodies in nine revenue districts and urban polls across the state, including those for 16 municipal corporations, starting with Chennai, the oldest and largest, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Constitution amendment bill to restore the power of states to make their own OBC lists after a thaw in the logjam as Opposition parties backed the legislation but demanded the removal of the 50 per cent cap on reservation, with many of them also calling for a caste-based census.
Amid the din in which BJP and Congress members tried to shove each other and some members banged the door leading to the secretary general's desk, Birla adjourned the House for the day.
Addressing party MPs at the general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the central hall of Parliament, she said when facing a significant national challenge, it has been the tradition in our country to bring Parliament into confidence.
BJP, AIADMK oppose the project while DMK and CPI(M) support the Sethusamudram shipping project across the Palk Strait. T E Narasimhan reports
Using recent developments for reaching out to DMK and JD-U ensures needed thrust for the congress and its government. Aditi Phadnis reports
The Chinese aren't after territory. Their target is our national will, morale and the sense of autonomy we feel in making our strategic choices. They are attacking India and the Modi government at their weakest point, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar briefed the leaders on the latest situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban captured power there last week.
Sandhya Ravishankar describes the thorny relationship between the two political titans of Tamil Nadu, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, both now part of the ages.
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.
In private, AIADMK spokespersons say that the raid on Chief Secretary P Ramamohana Rao might be aimed at weakening the AIADMK, and demotivating the party from selecting/electing Jayalalithaa's confidante, Sasikala Natarajan, as her successor -- first as party head then possibly in the government, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A total of 13 motions were moved in support of Birla.
The issued rocked both houses of Parliament with the Opposition demanding Modi's statement on Trump's controversial remarks, holding that Kashmir is a bilateral issue and no third party can intervene.
'Lending to Mr Mallya was the bankers' season ticket to corridors of power and glamour. Borrowing from them was like a favour Mallya did to them,' says Shekhar Gupta.
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