The last time Tamil Nadu seriously voted on pre-poll promises was in faraway 1967.
The DMK chief said it was a 'resounding victory' given to his party led alliance by the people of Tamil Nadu.
Mother and son refuse to go away despite indications blowing in the wind that their leadership is ringing the death knell of the party, observes Ramesh Menon.
The Congress on Monday joined other opposition parties, including the DMK and the PMK, in boycotting the June 27 by-election.
It is a sea of men clad in veshtis with distinctive party colour border design seeking votes with a smile and folded hands for their party candidates. The town is abuzz, with electioneering at its peak, and teeming trendy cars criss-cross the busy roads and bylanes bringing in more and more leaders from elsewhere for campaign.
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.
The Tamil Nadu assembly on Tuesday once again adopted the anti-NEET Bill, returned days ago to the government by Governor RN Ravi, with the ruling Dravida Munentra Kazhagam and principal opposition All India Anna DK reaffirming their opposition to the test.
Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin has written to his counterparts in 11 non-BJP ruled states and Goa, seeking their support to oppose the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test and restore 'the primacy of states' in education, the government said on Monday.
The meeting also decided to strengthen the security measures to monitor the local fishing boats and crews, intensify checking of passenger boats and vessels reaching the islands and strengthen the ship berthing points and helibase by installing CCTV cameras.
The power struggle in Tamil Nadu's main opposition party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, appears set to go on for a long time with sidelined leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) approaching the Election Commission and the influential Edappadi K Palaniswami camp refusing to budge.
According to an internal assessment of the food ministry, shared with chief ministers recently, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will see a massive reduction in their annual grain allocation.
Sharing his experience of the yatra so far, the Congress leader said he felt sad while talking to farmers, youth, and tribals.
Karnataka government on Saturday moved the Supreme court seeking a review of its order directing the state to release Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu even as it faced strident calls from opposition parties not to release the water "at any cost".
Petitions challenging the election of All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to the assembly in a byelection have been filed in the Madras high court by two independent candidates.
The Speaker, responding to pleas by DMK's KN Nehru, who was not among those suspended since he was not present in the House on August 17, made it clear that there was no reviewing of his decision to suspend the agitating DMK legislators for a week.
'I was invited to join the BJP, and I felt respected when they called me.'
The 71-year-old Dalit leader is expected to have a smooth sailing in the event of an election.
The decision was taken after a discussion between the disqualified legislators and Dhinakaran in Madurai.
"A stand was taken to seek his (Dhanapal's) removal based on the circumstances at that point of time. The party, however, now feels that the motion was not warranted," Stalin said on the opening day of the assembly session in Chennai.
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.
As per the bill, the salary and allowances of legislators have been raised from Rs 55,000 to Rs 1,05,000 per month, an increase of 90.91 per cent.
'We have done nothing wrong and I don't understand why they are sending a notice'
The Madras high court on Tuesday issued notice to All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa and government officials, on a petition by the Pattali Makkal Katchi accusing her of actuating the police to book its leaders and workers with a view to crush the party and sought a Special Investigation Team to look into all such cases.
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.
Alleging lack of intra-party democracy in the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam, former union minister D Napoleon on Sunday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has set eyes on strengthening its presence in Tamil Nadu ahead of 2016 assembly elections.
The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday announced that it would contest alone in the urban civic polls slated to be held on February 19, even while asserting that its alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the state remained intact.
His comments come a day after state Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar claimed that 111 MLAs had attended the meet convened by the chief minister.
Former chief minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy on Wednesday cautioned the voters against supporting the alliance comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, AINRC and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the coming assembly polls as these parties would have no qualms to merge the Union territory with Tamil Nadu.
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.
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.
The appointments of five governors, including for Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, and Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands by President Ram Nath Kovind were announced on Saturday.
'A one-party State is not possible in a diverse country like India.'
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
What does Udhayanidhi's induction as minister mean? For the DMK, it indicates the future course, direction and leadership. It is continuity with change, and change with continuity, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'She leaned forward and asked what I'd want -- and I said, "your blessings".' 'She smiled and replied, "You already have that, but tell me how I can help you".' Commonwealth gold medalist and Arjuna Awardee Roopa Unnikrishnan recalls how Jayalalithaa took her breath away.
Continuing to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his second day of campaign in Tamil Nadu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged Chinese troops have occupied Indian territory and the man with '56 inch-chest' cannot even utter the name of the neighbouring country.
Every vote now counts in the Tamil Nadu assembly, as the ruling party is walking on a wafer-thin majority. The Opposition DMK-led combine has 98 MLAs on their side, and with four others who had won on the AIADMK's 'Two Leaves' symbol in 2016 but do not belong to the party, per se, playing hide-and-seek with the party leadership, Dhinakaran with two or three other MLAs can give sleepless nights for the ruling party than their post-verdict celebrations may seemingly indicate, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
What these elections prove beyond any doubt (if ever there was one) that Modi's hold over public mind and Shah's mastery of election management are unparalleled. It doesn't seem likely that they will be matched any time soon in the Indian political scene, reaffirms Shreekant Sambrani.
Probodh Panda and Atul Kumar Anjaan are among 39 candidates declared by the Communist Party of India for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as the party said that it would fight on 60 seats in 24 states.
The 62-year old MLA, born on June 10, 1958 incidentally died on his 62nd birthday today and he is the first legislator victim of COVID-19 in the state and perhaps the first elected representative to die of the virus induced illness in the country. Anbazhagan battled severe COVID-19 triggered pneumonia and his health condition rapidly deteriorated early morning on Wednesday, Dr Rela Institute and Medical Centre, where he was treated said in a statement.