The lingering political drama in Tamil Nadu may see a denouement soon with Attorney General on Monday advising Governor C Vidyasar Rao to convene the assembly within in a week for a floor test to decide the fate of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam rivals O Panneerselvam and V K Sasikala.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee report on 2G spectrum scam, which was to have been tabled in Lok Sabha on September 30 is further delayed until the Winter Session of Parliament.
Besides the SAD, the SP, the AIADMK and the TRS supported the idea; while the AAP, the TDP, the JD-S, the AIFB, the DMK, the TMC, the GFP and Left parties opposed it.
Polling for 16 Rajya Sabha seats in four states will be held on Friday amid allegations of attempts at horse-trading by rival parties which have corralled their MLAs in hotels and scenic resorts, prompting the Election Commission to appoint special observers and order videography of the entire exercise.
The BJP will be the obvious gainer while the DMK will lose a major chunk of its vote bank.
With DMK's M K Stalin coming into his own, and the rival AIADMK too leaving no space for third parties, Tamil Nadu will remain a Dravidian stronghold for a long time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Senior All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader D Jayakumar on Wednesday slammed V K Sasikala, confidante of late party supremo J Jayalalithaa, for attempting to create confusion in the party using "audio politics" and for trying to "divide and rule."
Maharashtra and Haryana voted in assembly elections on Monday. Several prominent personalities also exercised their franchise.
There was high drama before the commencement of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical and dental courses, at various centres across Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Tiruchirapalli, Namakkal, Tirunelveli and Vellore when students were frisked and some were asked to cut off their sleeves, while a few female students were asked to remove their bras!
Though another 75 candidates are in the fray, the Elangovan-Thennaruasu fight has become a prestige battle for the DMK and AIADMK, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The grand old party faces the onerous task of rebuilding its moribund organisation, which is struggling to overcome a leadership crisis and regain credibility with the voters.
The government is banking on help from regional parties and rejigged numbers in the Rajya Sabha.
That's a deficit the NDA will have to make up with the help of 'friendly' alliance partners, the very groupings the PM has said are 'family-run'.
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
'Because I am the first official transgender candidate of a political party and fighting against Jayalalithaa, I got a lot of publicity.' 'Till now, nobody knew me. Now, the entire Tamil Nadu knows me.' 'The transgender community here wanted me to withdraw my candidature, saying Jayalalithaa had provided them with houses.' 'They feel Jayalalithaa would be angry with all transgender people because I am standing against her.'
'A person who came to take care of Jayalalithaa's personal needs slowly took control of her political life.'
"This whole incident of Waze's activities and controversies thereafter taught a lesson to the MVA government. It was good in a way that it happened and taught us some lessons," the Sena's chief spokesperson said.
By-elections to Lok Sabha and assembly seats in the states of Assam, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Tamil and West Bengal passed off peacefully on Saturday amidst tight security.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was on Saturday convicted and sentenced to four years jail in an 18-year-old corruption case in a judgment that will unseat her from the post, disqualified her immediately as an MLA and can impact the Assembly elections due in 18 months.
K C Venugopal (Congress) charged the Modi government with providing little funds for the MGNREGA.
The number of disgruntled leaders in the party is swelling.
Now that an elected chief minister is at the helm, it is high time the Centre initiate discussions to appoint a full-time governor at the earliest, given that the state is set to face some challenging times, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Fifty years ago today, December 25, 1972, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, one of the titans of India's freedom struggle, passed into the ages. Kalki Krishnamurthy, who penned the Tamil classic Ponniyin Selvan among numerous other novels, describes his first glimpse of the man who would become an august national leader and his cherished role model.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram is Congress nominee from Maharashtra for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha while senior leaders Kapil Sibal and Jairam Ramesh have been named from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka respectively.
Pakistan women cricket team's head coach New Zealander Mark Coles has resigned on Thursday, months before the ICC World T20 in Australia.
Ahead of VK Sasikala's return to Tamil Nadu on February 8, there are some important questions facing her. One, does she carry electoral weight more now than her brainchild AMMK had in the 2019 LS polls? Two, can she retain or build upon the five per cent vote-share from that time? And finally, is there space for Sasikala to retrieve, first within the AIADMK and then across the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The 10-day-long annual Ganesh Chaturthi festival began on a low-key note on Friday with several state governments prohibiting public celebrations due to the Covid pandemic and devotees taking the virtual route to pay obeisance and join the festivities.
Natarajan was admitted to the hospital on Saturday with severe chest infection and was put on ventilator support.
Contest on their own and get washed out, as happened in the 2016 assembly elections? Or contest in league with one of the Dravidian majors and get submerged under its election symbol? With elections looming, minor political parties in Tamil Nadu are caught in this dilemma, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A shell shocked opposition are finding it difficult to come to grips with the verdict in the disproportionate assets corruption case against Jayalalithaa.
Unpredictable polling in Tamil Nadu, and criminal cases stacked against Chief Minister Jayalalithaa will be two key factors to be taken into consideration when the government is formed at the Centre, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
However, the tilting factor still remains: Can the rivalling 'Modi brand' of 'soft Hindutva' and 'hard-sell nationalism' garner more votes for the NDA in Tamil Nadu, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
She also took a swipe at the Bharatiya Janata Party over its defeat in the just-concluded Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, saying the ruling party's president could not hold on to his home state. "Who is the Pappu now?" she asked.
'He can install OPS as chief minister and ask him to do the floor test later.'
The new Council of Ministers has representation from almost all the states, except Andhra Pradesh and the north-eastern states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.
Today, as Jayalalithaa's friend, advisor and 'sister' Sasikala is also lodged in Bangalore Central jail, the former Tamil Nadu chief minister is where she was before: alone, all alone
Two months after the "issuance" of fake death certificates in the names of a Tamil Nadu Minister and a member of Legislative Assembly by the city corporation, a birth certificate in the name of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal has come to fore, sparking demands for a probe into the functioning of e-governance services of the civic body.
When Vijila Sathyanath (AIADMK) rose to speak on her zero hour mention, DMK members, led by Tiruchi Siva and Kanimozhi, objected to it, saying she should not be allowed to raise the matter as their notices on the same issue were disallowed earlier.
As the merger brought to an end weeks of suspense during which there was tough negotiations, the two factions said steps would be taken to expel party chief V K Sasikala.
With some variations, all regional political formations, whether in power presently or out of it, share some common features: Tight family control of the political apparatus, key members in elected or appointed positions, obvious wealth but not quite known sources of income, and family factionalism, sometimes open and bitter, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
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