Now that Tamil Nadu's tallest politician is no more, it remains to be seen how new political re-alignments could shape up, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The DMK and PMK on Friday clinched an alliance for the coming Tamil Nadu assembly polls, under which the ruling party's junior partner has been allotted 31 assembly seats. The deal was finalised at a meeting between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss in Chennai. Karunanidhi, announcing the accord at the end of the nearly 90-minute meeting with his former ally, said the two parties had decided to fight the elections jointly.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, in its second chargesheet filed on Monday, named Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and several others for allegedly getting benefits out of the allocation of 2G spectrum to certain telecom firms.
Violence broke out in several parts of Tamil Nadu today after Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was convicted in a graft case with angry All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supporters indulging in stone pelting and arson and forcing closure of shops.
Ending days of suspense, Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi on Sunday announced that the Paatali Makkal Katchi will be part of the party-led alliance for the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu in May.Arriving in New Delhi on a three-day visit, Karunanidhi said he will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement between the two parties.
Azad said the "discussion of election strategy was the main purpose."
This is the impression gaining ground in Congress circles here ahead of the emergency meeting of the DMK's high-level Action Committee.
Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar visits the latest pilgrimage site in Chennai: J Jayalalitha's final resting place.
A staunch supporter of slain LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran, he also criticised the former prime minister for sending the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka in the 1980s.
Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiagarajan has proclaimed his determination to set Tamil Nadu's fiscal house in order in five years, and Friday will show how he plans to go about it when he rises to present the Stalin government's maiden budget, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Upset over the arrest of Kanimozhi in 2G scam, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Friday said he was in a position like that of any father whose daughter faced a similar situation for no fault of hers and said the party general council would decide on future ties with Congress.
Amid reports that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Union Minister M K Alagiri has submitted his resignation from the Union Cabinet to party president Karunanidhi, DMK leader TR Baalu met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to discuss "alliance matters".
A Dravidian outfit has alleged that Rajinikanth uttered a 'blatant lie' that the images of Lord Ram and Sita were taken nude in a rally held by Periyar as part of superstition eradication conference in 1971 at Salem.
The biggest significance of Friday night's statement from Chief Minister Karunanidhi is that this is the first time in many months that the DMK has spoken openly about the alliance and negotiations in public.
Karunanidhi, who has always appeased Azhagiri when elections were around the corner, while pampering and promoting Stalin at all times and costs, will find Azhagiri hard to please this time around.
Enraged over the repeated attacks on the party by his elder son and suspended leader M K Alagiri, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Tuesday expelled him from the party.
Dayalu Ammal, wife of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and additional director of Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd, has told the Central Bureau of Investigation that she was not aware of the source of Rs 200 crore which came to the channel in which she has 60 per cent share.
Against the backdrop of frequent attacks against Indian fishermen allegedly by the Sri Lankan navy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to advise Colombo in 'strong terms' to refrain from such 'uncalled for attacks'. Karunanidhi, who arrived in Delhi on a three-day visit on Sunday, met Dr Singh at his 7, Race Course Road residence and took up the issue of recent 'brutal attacks' by the Sri Lankan Navy on fishermen from TN.
Though both the Dravidian majors are facing questions on family politics, the ruling party especially finds itself in the dock since its late leader J Jayalalithaa had often used it to target her party's archrival DMK.
Considering that all sides to the game feel being targeted by the BJP-ruled Centre through taxmen and their ED/CBI counterparts, both factions may not rule out the possibility of patching up after a time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The party unanimously elected veteran Duraimurugan as general secretary and senior leader T R Baalu as treasurer. Former Telecom Minister A Raja and seasoned party leader K Ponmudi were elected as deputy general secretaries.
'When an individual becomes authoritarian, you can overthrow the individual easily. 'When the system becomes authoritarian, whoever challenges the system will be called a criminal or an anti-national.'
Telephone calls from Congress ministers at the Centre, including Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, on behalf of the party high command may have forced Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi to seal the fate of Union Telecom Minister A Raja, who was asked to resign after he landed in Delhi last night.
With the acquittal of arch rival All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Jayalalithaa coming as a reversal for it, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam top brass on Monday went into a huddle to work on a political and legal strategy following the development.
Celebrities and politicians made a beeline for polling stations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, as both the states go to the polls on Monday.
Ageing leadership, reckless family-oriented politics, absence of inner-party democracy, lack of debate on core issues within the party are all taking a very heavy toll on the original Dravidian party, says R Ramasubramanian.
Karunanidhi said he was 'totally surprised' to see an announcement that EC had not prevented the state government from implementing the ongoing schemes.
The Centre has allowed slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Prabhakaran's mother Parvathi Ammal to visit Tamil Nadu for medical treatment on certain conditions, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said on Monday. The Union government's decision has been conveyed through a letter to the Indian mission in Kuala Lumpur where she is staying at present, Karunanidhi said in a suo motu statement in the state assembly.
If the Congress lost in Tamil Nadu in 1967, never to return, or the DMK and the AIADMK have kept their place in power and electoral politics since then, it owes not to their love or hatred for gods or for one religion over another. Instead, they had always been linked to performance and incumbency/anti-incumbency factors. There may be something in such constructs for Rajini's strategic team to consider, especially if the superstar is to enter direct politics by around this time next year. But then, they would need to brush up their homework more than at present, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Asserting that the Tamil Nadu government had no role in the Friday's deportation of Parvathi, mother of slain LTTE leader V Prabhakaran, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Monday said that the state would write to the Centre on allowing her for medical treatment, if she insisted.
"If journalists in Coimbatore want me to quit, you fix a date and I will do so," he said at a press conference in Coimbatore at the end of the five day world classical Tamil conference, his pet project.
Dravida Munnetra Kazagham leader M K Stalin on Sunday rubbished reports that he has offered to quit as party's treasurer after not being allowed to contest for the post of general secretary and said he only aspired to retain the post.
Never before in the history of the Republic has an election in the state mattered so much as it does now, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Given the twin embarrassments of a TTV win and party nominee Karu Nagarajan losing his deposit, polling fewer votes than NOTA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP boss Amit Shah would be pushed to rethink their strategy. Tamil Nadu would thus become a part of the BJP's grander strategy for 2019 rather than a stand-alone affair, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Alagiri's remarks reignited the succession war that appeared to have been settled with the promotion of his younger sibling M K Stalin as deputy chief minister last year by Karunanidhi, with Alagiri himself being promoted to national politics after being inducted into the Union Cabinet.
An AIADMK survey estimates that the party will get between 25 and 30 of Tamil Nadu's 39 seats. This makes Jayalalithaa a major player in New Delhi, if not a contender for the prime minister's post.
'Having learnt her lesson in popular democracy, Jaya would become more populist than the DMK and more so than the imagery that mentor MGR had created in the Tamil voter's mind, both as an individual and as an elected ruler.'
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Tuesday asked the Centre to grant permanent residential status to over 1.6 lakh Sri Lankan Tamil refugees residing in the state.
Asserting that his father and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was his leader, Union Minister M K Alagiri said on Thursday that he would stand for the party president's post in future if there was a contest.
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