Top Tamil actor Vijay on Friday announced the launch of his political party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam, and said he will contest the 2026 assembly polls in the state.
Women politicians bring to politics and policy a sensitivity that most of their male counterparts, at least until a generation back, lacked.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Madras high court order allowing Edappadi K Palaniswami to continue as interim general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, establishing his position as the single, supreme leader of the party.
The BJP state unit hailed Vasan and said his advice will be used in the coming days to guide the alliance.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is doing well and speaks using a valve attached to the tracheostomy tube as she continues to get treatment, Apollo Hospitals Chairman Dr Prathap C Reddy said on Friday.
The BJP game-plan: Take the top slot, or a close second, either for the 'Lotus' or the larger NDA, if it can and push the AIADMK to the third place, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP is focusing determinedly on the seats it lost in 2019, with the hope of winning these either independently or with the aid of its allies.
More than ever before, women voters can make or mar a political party's electoral fortunes.
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 bickering between allies All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu over late Dravidian stalwart C N Annadurai peaked on Monday with the regional party snapping ties with the saffron organisation, saying it cannot tolerate any affront to the late chief minister and its other leaders.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa states that NEET is a direct infringement on the state's rights & would cause injustice to the students.
A local court in Chennai on Friday granted the Enforcement Directorate (ED) eight days custody of Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji, who was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the agency on June 14.
CM Stalin has a procedural problem. Nominating new ministers would entail his having to seek formal permission from governor R N Ravi. Stalin does not want to interact with the person of this governor, as far as possible, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Karnataka high court on Friday quashed the investigation by the vigilance against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Justice Jaganathan while quashing the decision of a probe by the vigilance also ordered the special court in Bangalore to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis.
The arrest, the first of a sitting chief minister, came hours after the Delhi high court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the agency.
According to DMK, the voters are already consolidated on ideological lines, hence the impact of anti-incumbency, whether against the BJP Centre or the DMK state may not be too much, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa has informed the Supreme Court that she would find it difficult to appear before the special court at Bangalore as the police have not made adequate security arrangements.
Palaniswami currently helms the party founded by the charismatic M G Ramachandran and nurtured by the redoubtable J Jayalalithaa.
The Tamil film industry won't forget Vijayakanth's large-heartedness, how he took care of fellow industry persons, male or female, rich or poor, young or old...recalls N Sathiya Moorthy. How he sent money quietly for the family of a stunt artiste to meet his funeral expenses, how he always ensured that all female co-stars, including junior artistes, had secure accommodation on outdoor shoots, and how he would always the first to rush help if anyone from the fraternity was in distress.
There may be those who could want to go slow, citing the large pendency of follow-up action and court cases that they would have to process and/or proceed with, before raiding more politicians, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
To celebrate his coronation as AIADMK general secretary on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 -- Madras High Court Justice K Kumaresh Babu rejected interim applications by O Paneerselvam and his supporters seeking stay on the general secretary polls -- Edappadi K Palaniswami went all MGR.
'What should surprise BJP supporters is Modi's call for 'stability' at the manifesto launch, a theme that he and his team members had not touched ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014 and 2019.' 'The last time the party called for 'stability at the Centre' was in 1998 and 1999,' recalls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ramachandran, an OPS loyalist who took part in the meeting, said the former chief minister would soon meet VK Sasikala, the confidante of former party supremo J Jayalalithaa.
Union minister Raosaheb Danve has caused a flutter by saying if the Bharatiya Janata Party needs victory in the Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra in 2024, then it must ensure that All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and sitting MP Imtiaz Jaleel contests the election next year.
He will be remembered for mustering the courage to take on former chief ministers and the state's political heavyweights M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa in the political arena on his own terms and also hold his own against them.
O Panneerselvam should not be surprised if the current controversy that he has kicked off is used to rid him of the party coordinator's post, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Friday re-allocated the portfolios held by arrested state Minister V Senthil Balaji, on the recommendations of Chief Minister M K Stalin but "has not agreed" to the minister continuing in the cabinet, the Raj Bhavan said.
A G Perarivalan -- a convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who was released by the Supreme Court on May 18, 2022 -- and his mother Arputhammal met V K Sasikala, former AIADMK chief minister J Jayalalithaa's long-time associate, at her residence at T Nagar in Chennai on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
J Deepa, niece of late chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, officially received the keys to the Poes Garden residence of her aunt on Friday, bringing to close a protracted legal battle to obtain the custody of the palatial building.
Constituencies that are going to the polls in the first phase, slated for April 19, have just 19 days for campaigning. Contrast that with those going to polls in the 7th phase, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stalin still enjoys a lot of sympathy and empathy as someone wishing well for the state, but not full-throated support as in 2019 and 2021, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
If Kejriwal is arrested, it will take very little for Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena to summon a meeting of the assembly, direct it to elect a new leader of the House, and, if it doesn't, dissolve it and impose President's Rule, predicts Aditi Phadnis.
Tamil Nadu's voters wanted tough leaders at the helm, to the point of being autocratic. It was what Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalithaa ended up becoming, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
AIADMK leaders and supporters pay homage to J Jayalithaa on her 5th death anniversary.
'When they completely surrender to the BJP or the BJP has completely taken over the party, what's the point in the AIADMK surviving and doing business in the state?'
From the voter-level, traditionally anti-BJP, anti-Hindutva minorities and other secular voters would have an option, especially in the face of the mounting anti-incumbency against the ruling party -- as it happened in the 2001 assembly polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The case of the two Shiv Sena factions for legitimacy and the party symbol, 'Bow and Arrow', is now before the Election Commission. Whichever way the EC findings go, the other can be expected to move the Supreme Court. They would need a final verdict before the parliamentary polls, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Factionalism between OP Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palaniswami, the dominance of the BJP, the ruling DMK having a strong face in the form of CM Stalin, 'community and region-based politics', corruption charges against former ministers, and lack of a proper ideology are the major challenges the party is facing in the state.
Claims over leadership became the focal point at the former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa's death anniversary event held in Chennai on Sunday with the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, led by O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami, asserting that it is a 'fortress' that cannot be shaken by anyone.