Stalin has given due respect to seniority in the pecking order, but has also taken into consideration the demands of individual ministries and the suitability of individuals, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Amusing spectacles unfold everyday with candidates attempting a variety of things from donning the role of a chef to washing clothes to woo voters, spicing up the campaign for the April 6 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu.
Every once in a while, has come a political movie led by a woman.
Taking part in the discussion of the situation in the Valley on Wednesday, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Navaneethakrishnan couldn't hide his love for Kashmir.
SC keeps in abeyance a Delhi high court order on allotment of symbol.
In Tamil Nadu, the alternative to one Dravidian party has been another, and for one actor-politician CM, there is another. Their initial popularity may owe to their filmi charisma, but their continued acceptance owed to their government's policies and programmes targeting the poor and the needy in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Palaniswami, Tamil Nadu's new CM was among the senior ministers who had proximity to Jayalalithaa.
Without strategising together, Jayalalithaa's successor, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and M Karunanidhi's son-cum-successor, M K Stalin, have used tough-talking on seat-sharing with allies, to replace charisma that they purportedly lacked, during the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled for April 6, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Here is a closer look at politicos who have emerged victorious in the electoral contest of five state assemblies.
With the unanticipated floods across Tamil Nadu catching the unprepared administration unawares, Stalin finds that some of the early positives that had rubbed on his initiatives have been lost, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Vijayakanth said the decision to snap ties with the AIADMK was taken following a unanimous view reached at a consultative meeting with party's district secretaries in Chennai.
'Kamal Haasan always appeared to be quick to strike, but afraid to wound.' 'What he is offering the people of Tamil Nadu is not clear, but whatever it is, it will be a fresh element in the state's politics,' says Aditi Phadnis.
The Hindutva social media continues to present the DMK especially as anti-god, anti-Hindu and anti-Brahmin. The strategy did not work in the past, it has not worked in the present, and would not work in the future, as a massive vote-getter, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
This will cost the government Rs 3.1 trillion, about 10 per cent of its annual expenditure, and higher than any other spending item in its Budget.
Shrug off the yoke of the imperialism of Delhi. That is why the DMK manifesto offers what it offers: The promise that Tamil Nadu will, one day, become an independent republic, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Many big Bollywood's big movies have been pushed forward to 2021, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Among them are quite a few bio-pics.
Chief Minister MK Stalin has shown that he is cut from a different cloth when it comes to embracing what is current, modern and absolutely necessary. Thus, even while retaining the spirit and content of the pan-Tamil, Dravidian socio-political and socio-economic ideology to the 't', his government has also acknowledged the need to accepting scientifically-proven facts in operational matters, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The government on Monday ruled out the possibility of free food-grains distribution to migrants saying there is no panic situation and no complete national lockdown unlike last year.
May 2021 will end with double-digit unemployment rate, falling employment rate and substantial loss of employment, points out Mahesh Vyas.
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 Tamil Nadu CM appealed people to vote for AIADMK in upcoming bypolls.
With the Tamil Nadu electorate having given him an unprecedented mandate that had eluded his father the late M Karunanidhi, Stalin has to prove his worth, ensuring at the same time that the Dravidian drag on the AIADMK's side does not open up space for the BJP to make inroads in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Sasikala definitely has an emotional advantage over the others, but there are very seasoned politicians with a strong support base.' 'For the time being, they may toe her line.'
The veteran star likened Modi to tall leaders of India, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, A B Vajpayee, K Kamaraj, C N Annadurai, M G Ramachandran, M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa.
For the AIADMK's cadres, it is much more than an election symbol, they believe the party's electoral chances rest on owning it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
If politics in Tamil Nadu, under Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, can be compared to a complex game of chess, then she is undoubtedly the all-powerful queen while her ministers are mere pawns. If it is compared to a game of rummy, then she is the ace of cards and her ministers are simply a pack of jokers.
Both Rajini and Kamal have to first convince the Tamil Nadu voters that even if they are entering active politics relatively late in life, they are here to stay, and are serious about politics, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A time has thus come when state encouragement for rural students led to empowerment of the socio-economically marginalised sections of the population. It included women. Today, with greater exposure and consequent enlightenment, it has gone beyond 'empowerment' to become 'entitlement', says N Sathiya Moorthy.
If something stands out in the one year since Jayalalithaa's passing, it would be her famed leadership qualities and her ability to reach out to the party and the people above the second line, and also the state administration, to the exclusion of all the rest. Only Indira Gandhi had achieved it all in her time, and no other leader, possibly excepting Prime Modi Modi, could hold a candle to that, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The party HQ, addressed as 'Thalamai Kazhagam' in Tamil, now has only banners of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
The going is not going to be easy for the DMK and its allies in Elections 2024. Despite the seats sweepstake in the 2021 assembly polls, the vote-share difference of 5.6% (DMK's 45.38% versus AIADMK-BJP's 39.72%) is not insurmountable on a bad day, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu had begun seeing Governor Ravi's decisions and actions as a part of the state BJP's non-stop criticism of its government and directed from Delhi, a view strengthened by the governor's decision to return the NEET exemption bill, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Back of the envelope calculations put government expense on each of the new schemes promised by the DMK and the AIADMK at tens of thousands of crores. But then, neither party has said how they are going to also address the mounting debt burden either, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
around 100 hearing-impaired children and their teachers have been left stranded at the Dr MGR School for the speech and hearing impaired since Tuesday evening.
Rajinikanth and Kamalahaasan's new generation movies of the twenty-first century may make bigger money than their earlier films but leave behind a lesser impact. That would make the difference between their success and failure as politicians, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Deepa Jayakumar said she has decided to follow in her aunt's footsteps and will announce her next political step on Jayalaithaa's birth anniversary on February 24.
To claim that Tamil Nadu was waiting for a messiah of the 'spiritual' Rajini kind is misplaced, if not mischievous, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tamil Nadu Cabinet has decided to recommend late All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa for India's highest civilian honour, the 'Bharat Ratna'.
'I don't think after Amma, the cult of personality will endure.' 'I think there will be a shift back to the politics of ideology and principles rather than a cult of personality.'
Rahman cast his vote in the ongoing general elections, and holds up his finger as proof.
