The Central team will be on a three-day visit to the affected areas and its itinerary will be decided on its arrival in Chennai on Friday, he added.
For a party that has adopted the successful social re-engineering model from Gujarat, Rajasthan and across the rest of the 'Hindi belt' over the past decades, Tamil Nadu continues to remain a tricky customer, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dinakaran has been re-inducted and elevated to the position of deputy general secretary.
Modi and Shah have finalised names for the Rashtrapati's post, which the BJP boss has discussed with the RSS chief.
'The BJP doesn't have to do anything except nudge the AIADMK in one direction.'
Former Chief Minister Panneerselvam could muster only 11 votes, ending the prolonged stalemate triggered by his rebellion.
He also launched 70-lakh tree sapling planting drive to commemorate the 70th birth anniversary celebrations of late Jayalalithaa.
At 70, going by hospital records made public, most age and health-related arguments put out against super-star Rajinikanth's entry into politics, before he withdrew citing a 2016 kidney-transplant, hold good for Sasikala, too, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Official celebrations in most states were restricted to unfurling of the national flag and chief ministers and governors addressing the people, with fewer guests in attendance.
Every vote now counts in the Tamil Nadu assembly, as the ruling party is walking on a wafer-thin majority. The Opposition DMK-led combine has 98 MLAs on their side, and with four others who had won on the AIADMK's 'Two Leaves' symbol in 2016 but do not belong to the party, per se, playing hide-and-seek with the party leadership, Dhinakaran with two or three other MLAs can give sleepless nights for the ruling party than their post-verdict celebrations may seemingly indicate, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The front-runner of course is party treasurer and long-serving party legislator, S Duraimurugan. A Vanniar by caste from the rival PMK-strong northern belt, Duraimurugan makes up for his weak political grounding through his debating skills in the assembly, and witty repartee, both inside and outside. Apart from caste and regional representation, personal loyalty to the leader would count even more -- but there is no death of loyal and competent candidates in the party for the post, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The court said there was no infirmity in the poll panel's decision to allot the AIADMK name and two leaves symbol to the faction headed by Palaniswami.
The 12-MPs delegation, led by Rajya Sabha member V Maitreyan, submitted a memorandum in this regard to the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In their memorandum, they sought steps for instituting a probe which can be a judicial inquiry or a CBI probe. It can be decided by the President, Maitreyan said after meeting Mukherjee.
By aligning with the BJP, even if they were arm-twisted into doing so, the AIADMK leadership has yielded their political space in the state to the aunt-nephew duo of Sasikala-Dinakaran, and the parliamentary election to the DMK-Congress combine, says A Ganesh Nadar.
M K Stalin also opposed the naming of government schemes after her and "the use of taxpayers' money for her 69th birthday celebrations" on Friday.
Palaniswami, a known Sasikala loyalist and a five-time MLA, is the party's strongman from Salem district.
Before unveiling the giant 'Adiyogi' bust, Modi lighted the 'Maha Yoga Yagna' and released the book Adiyoga: The source of Yoga, which deals with yogic sciences.
Schools and colleges, closed since October 31, were shut on Saturday as well, while several universities postponed their exams.
For now, Edappadi K Palaniswami is in the saddle in Tamil Nadu, and firmly so. Both inside the party and the government, he has made OPS a yes-man, as the latter used to be under Jayalalithaa, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The 'Chennai Trekking Club' has blamed the local farmers for the fire that engulfed the area.
Palaniswami and Paneerselvam joined to oust Dinakaran and EC cancelled R K Nagar by-election.
Truth be acknowledged, Rajinikanth is not known for wanting to leave his comfort zone to take the politico-electoral plunge, even if it meant his becoming the chief minister of a state that has conferred Tamil cinema's superstardom on him over the past 25 years. Today, his fans belong to the younger generation all right, but their numbers are far fewer than their counterparts in the '90s. They are not devoid of personal ambitions and agendas, unlike what Rajinikanh wants them to be, if he and they were to enter politics, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Rajinikanth seems to have ended the recently-revived speculation about his imminent launch into direct politics, unlike in the past, when he had expressed specific or indirect support one or the other of the two 'Dravidian majors', says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The governor enquired "about the general administration of the affairs of the government," a Raj Bhavan release said.
Rajinikanth will win the elections whenever they are held, predicts A Ganesh Nadar.
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.
Security has been beefed up at Karunanidhi's Gopalapuram residence as DMK cadre kept pouring in there.
Jeyanandh Dhivakaran, son of Sasikala's brother, V Dhivaharan, is making headlines in Tamil Nadu politics, reports Gireesh Babu.
The announcement was made by AIADMK coordinator and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and Union Minister and senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal, party election in-charge for Tamil Nadu, who described it as a "mega alliance".
'Of equal importance was the AIADMK's precarious assembly membership, what with 11 of its MLAs including deputy chief minister OPS facing court cases for disqualification and by-elections due in another 21. To shore up the party's numbers for anticipated eventuality on the 11-MLAs' front, the AIADMK leadership in general and chief minister EPS in particular, were even more focussed on assembly seats than LS seats, just now,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
With election campaign ending in Tamil Nadu before it goes to polls on Thursday, N Sathiya Moorthy lists a few questions uppermost in the minds of voters.
E Madusudanan, who was earlier removed as presidium chairman by Sasikala, said she had 'violated' her promise to the late Jayalalithaa that she will not enter politic.
What transpired between O Panneerselvam and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi? R Rajagopalan reveals.
V P Duraisamy's exit will in no way upset the poll scene in western Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The agitation saw the participation of 147 farmers when it started, which number swelled to 325 by the time it ended.
The dam is located on the Western Ghats near Thekkady in Idukki district of Kerala on the Periyar river.
If you thought Vajubhai Vala's invitation to BSY was a one-off, think again :))
Of the 20 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, eight were from Maharashtra, three each from Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, two from Jammu and Kashmir and one each from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Party treasurer and Chief Minister O Panneerselvam said, "In tune with party rules, honourable Chinnamma is appointed AIADMK general secretary and a resolution to this effect has been adopted unanimously by the general council."
A full one year after Jayalalithaa was hospitalised on the night of September 22, 2016, followed by long hospitalisation and death on December 5, Tamil Nadu continues to be rocked by instability and non-governance of every which kind, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
