Independent of what the Karnataka high court and the Supreme Court might decide in Jayalalithaa's conviction and sentencing in the coming days, weeks and months, political arguments based on 'popular mandate' theory are plain untenable, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
One of the most charismatic figures of Tamil Nadu politics and the most enduring mascot of the Dravidian movement breathed his last at 6.10 pm.
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.
If the AIADMK falls short of the 117-mark required to form a government in the 234-member assembly, will it strike a post-poll deal to form Tamil Nadu's first coalition government? N Sathiyamorthy analyses.
Its current majority of 22,078 votes for the purpose of the presidential elections is considered thin, particularly when BJP might not be able to predict voting behaviour of its allies like Shiv Sena.
O Panneerselvam may have a trick or two to spring a surprise.
Congress members trooped in to the Well of the House raising anti-government slogans.
Droupadi Murmu scripted history on Thursday by becoming India's first tribal President in the one-sided contest, defeating Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the BJP is looking to fill the Opposition slot and not aspire to occupy pole position.
'Human rights violations are there in rural areas and in cities. In rural areas it is crude and in the open. In urban areas it is well hidden.' 'Awareness has grown several fold. India has 160 national and state human rights institutions. No other country in the world has this.' 'Unfortunately the right to association, right to assembly, freedom of expression, right to protest and discuss are all being curtailed systematically one by one.'
Karnataka's SLP against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's acquittal has as much for the legal community across the country, as its electoral fallout may have for the political fraternity, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In true Karnataka political style, which cuts across parties and loyalties, any reinstatement of Yeddiyurappa, even with adequate legislative majority, could trigger rebellion from within, which could embarrass the Modi-Shah duo than any other development elsewhere in the country, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
OPS also requested the EC to restarin Sisikala's pick Dindigul C Sreenivasan from functioning as the party treasurer
29 years ago, Karnataka was hurled into a huge political crisis after MLAs withdrew support to S R Bommai's Janata Dal ministry. As the governor recommended that the chief minister be dismissed and President's Rule imposed in the state, then President R Venkataraman disagreed with Rajiv Gandhi's Cabinet and argued that 'the question whether a ministry commanded the confidence of the assembly should be tested in the House and not by the governor.' A fascinating excerpt from President Venkataraman's My Presidential Years, published with the kind permission of the publishers HarperCollins India.
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 Karnataka government is divided over filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of former Tamil Nadu chief minister. N Sathiya Moorthy analyses the possibilities
It is possibly the first time that a regional party with not even enough numbers to move a no-trust motion has taken the lead, and others are following it. The hints of a no-trust move first came from the YSR Congress, and the ruling TDP could not have stayed on together when the question is another version of 'Telugu atma gouravam' - an issue that fired its founder N T Rama Rao in the 1980s, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
There were unconfirmed reports that the AIADMK would even parade the MLAs before the President.
Bad management, an exhausted government vigilance mechanism, delay in roping in private players, relaxing norms, and over-dependence on antigen tests may be the reason behind the surge, reports Shine Jacob.
The manifesto was unveiled by Jayalalithaa at a public rally, in a departure from usual practice of release at party headquarters in Chennai.
The organisation established its electoral presence post-Independence in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Assam, with West Bengal being its main stronghold, but eight decades down the line, the party, now limited to just some pockets of the country, has no MP or MLA in its kitty.
Police claimed that money recovered from alleged middleman Sukesh Chandrashekar was sent by Dinakaran.
Lashing out at Congress President Sonia Gandhi for "playing with the lives of Telugu people" and "murdering democracy in broad daylight", YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Saturday called on Telugu people to give 30 Lok Sabha seats to his party in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections to stop the division of Andhra Pradesh.
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.
His career as a bureaucrat has been somewhat colourless, which suggests his current elevation is simply a matter of being at the right place at the right time.
For Stalin and the DMK, the declaration was the essence of the commencement of seat-sharing talks with the Congress, and even more, the launch of their combined campaign for the LS polls. That meant the DMK had to send out a message also to the 'minorities' in the state, who had deserted the DMK and very badly at that in the critical, post-Jaya R K Nagar assembly bypolls last year, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
While the term of 288-member Maharashtra assembly ends on November 9, that of the 90-member Haryana assembly expires on November 2.
Several Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly have declared cases in which they have been charged with inciting communal tension. The Association for Democratic Reforms in a report gives details of elected representatives with such charges.
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.
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
Calculated or otherwise, if Azhagiri's firing of the first salvo after Karunanidhi's death does not create some space for him to politico-electorally exploit at a later date, there may not be any space left for him at all, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'If this is the India you're talking about, where there is no space for minorities, where you have hate, where people can enter universities and beat students up, let me be anti-national.' 'I'll carry that as a badge of honour.'
Jayalalithaa, who took oath as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for the sixth time, said if she would have been informed she would have instructed the officers in charge of the arrangements to provide a seat to Stalin in the first row, relaxing the norms in the Protocol Manual.
This was her second term as chief minister and, in keeping with the tradition of voters choosing the Congress and the BJP alternately, the ruling party looks set to lose power.
The bills were passed by voice vote.
'No Indian political party functions in a democratic way.'
Stalin disapproved of the act of some his party legislators sitting in the chair of Speaker P Dhanapal in the assembly.
The pandemic has changed the way people see the government. It has eroded trust in the administration's ability to tackle a crisis, any crisis, observes Devangshu Datta.
'We were supposed to be a united nation based on unity and diversity.' 'Now what we are doing is there will be a class called Marathas, Dangars, etc.' 'The 100 per cent of our nation's population will be in classes and you will be allocating the nation's education and service resources in terms of classes.' 'How does it work out in terms of equality? Where is your equal nation?'
He said whoever supported the Palaniswami rule cannot go to the people for votes.
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