The bypoll is considered a test for ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led front, which assumed office five months ago.
A Raja, the former telecom minister who stepped down from his post in the wake of the 2G spectrum scam, does not appear in the list of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders who will campaign from 2011 Tamil Nadu assembly elections. This list was finalised on Thursday by DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
For the first time in recent times, rebellion was open in the monolithic AIADMK with party workers wanting change of candidates in so many places.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will contest 182 of 234 seats in the May 8 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, party supremo Jayalalithaa announced in Chennai Friday.
The confederation met in Chennai and decided to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and seek allotment of a seat for the confederation in the polls.
Party leaders say Vaiko's credibility will take a beating now.
The front row of Rajya Sabha may have a new look in the monsoon session beginning Monday with the biennial elections throwing up new winners and losers.
Emerging after a 20-minute meeting, Mukherjee told reporters that he has had a 'close relationship' with Karunanidhi since the 1970s.
Will Vijayakanth act as a spoiler in Tamil Nadu politics? Or can he intervene in a meaningful way to upset the apple carts of both the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), led by Muthuvel Karunanidhi, and the Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK), led by Jayalalithaa?
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate Latha Athiaman is leading by more than 5000 votes over All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Muthuramalingam after the first round of counting of votes in the bypoll to the Tirumangalam assembly constituency, for which elections were held on Janury 9.
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.
DMK president M Karunanidhi on Monday said the AIADMK's victory in the byelections to the Tamil Nadu assembly from Kancheepuram and Gummidipoondi was due to 'misuse of official machinery'.
A medical oncologist at the Kalaignar Centenary Super Speciality Hospital in Chennai was stabbed seven times on Wednesday by the son of a patient allegedly over grievances on treatment to his mother at the same facility, a hospital official said.
The PMK may join the Jayalalitha led front for the forthcoming elections, after the DMK snapped ties with them.
The alliance captured civic bodies in Madurai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Salem, and Tiruchirappalli.
If the TVK joins the NDA, there is every likelihood of the AIADMK winning an absolute majority in the 234 seat assembly and wanting to form a stand-alone government. In turn, it could mean that the BJP especially and the TVK equally so, will want to restrict the AIADMK's seat share closer to the cut-off figure, if only to ensure that EPS won't get the absolute majority that he desires (if the NDA won, that is) and will have to settle for a coalition government, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a bid to appease the public following the AIADMK's rout in the polls, she also restored free power to farmers.
The Legislative Council was abolished 20 years ago.
Senior Congress leader to support AIADMK
To all those who were expecting the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance to do well (some even predicted a sweep), the Tamil Nadu results came as a big surprise. What went in favour of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alliance at the last minute is anybody's guess.
In the last Lok Sabha elections, Congress won all 10 of the seats it contested.
AIADMK supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa constituted a six-member committee on Monday to hold seat-sharing discussions with alliance parties for assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Kerala.
"How can you expect Vaiko to accept my appeal to continue in the DPA when he has not respected the statement of his own mother," Karunanidhi asked.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi and his son M K Stalin on Friday issued a legal notice to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa.
The Union Cabinet had on Tuesday cleared the ordinance to give statutory powers to the review committees.
Former Union Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M K Alagiri was on Friday suspended from the party on charges of going against the party's stand and airing divergent views on the issue of stitching an alliance with Vijaykant's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam.
A Raja said panel's chairman Jagdambika Pal has been conducting the panel's meetings in haste, raising doubts that it will not be able to serve justice.
The meeting assumes significance in the context of an uneasy relationship between the BJP and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of J Jayalalitha.
Arun Saharya, former chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court, would head the committee.
Erode MP A Ganeshamurthi, who allegedly attempted suicide recently, died at a Coimbatore hospital on Thursday morning, sources from his party Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the police said.
While the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam contested it under the seven-party Democratic Progressive Alliance banner, her party contested the polls on its own, the CM said.
The ruling All Indian Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Monday retained both Kancheepuram and Gummidipoondi assembly seats in the byelection held on May 14.
'Some statements and actions of the AIADMK are nearer to the BJP's ideology. We welcome it,' says Tamil Nadu BJP Chief L Ganesan.
A police complaint has been lodged at Barakhamba police station in Delhi, against 26 Opposition parties "for improper use of the name of INDIA and use of the said name for the undue influence and personation at elections."
Nachiappan, however, ruled out an alliance with the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, as it was a "replica of the Bharatiya Janata Party".
The DMK doesn't have a Dalit candidate, the ADMK has.
In the last five years, 480 candidates with declared cases related to hate speech have contested elections to state assemblies, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, the ADR said.
The Congress was the only party in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday to demand a discussion on setting up a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe allegations against the Adani group. Other opposition parties gave similar notices on different issues, including violence in Manipur and Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal. The Congress members sought a JPC to investigate the alleged misconduct, including corruption, bribery and financial irregularities of the Adani Group in connivance with other authorities. However, other opposition parties raised different issues, with the AAP seeking a discussion on "increasing crimes in Delhi" and the TMC, DMK, AAP and CPI seeking a discussion on violence in Manipur. The CPI-M, SP and IUML sought a discussion on the recent violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh.
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