There will be 2,364 counting halls as compared to 1,002 halls in 2016 in 822 assemble constituencies, a more than 200 percent increase, in view of the COVID guidelines, according to the Election Commission which had drawn flak from the courts over the conduct of polls during the pandemic.
The nearly two month-long grueling campaigning in peak summer for the May 16 Tamil Nadu assembly election that is witnessing a multi-cornered contest comes to an end on Saturday.
The Congress on Monday joined other opposition parties, including the DMK and the PMK, in boycotting the June 27 by-election.
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.
With Tamil Nadu's electoral fate decided, all eyes would now veer round to the pending 'disproportionate assets case' against Jayalalithaa in the Supreme Court, and Stalin's own future within the DMK, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Over 8.1 lakh voters are exercising their franchise in the union territory of Puducherry for the 30-member assembly where ruling Congress is contesting 17 seats.
Tamil Nadu, the land of regional parties where the two Dravidian outfits have ruled the roost for long, is witnessing a few fledgling parties testing their electoral luck for the first time in the April 24 Lok Sabha elections, including Aam Aadmi Party and Indiya Jananayaka Katchi.
The prime minister said the opposition's hatred against him was reaching new levels daily and they have a competition over who abused him the most.
The Government on Wednesday virtually turned own demands of two Tamil parties, including United Progressive Alliance constituent Patali Makkal Katchi, for India's intervention to stop military offensive in Sri Lanka, saying it cannot force a sovereign government of another country to take a particular line.
The exercise to add the inmates' names to the electoral roll was initiated in February this year.
With the DMK formalising its alliance with the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League, and the AIADMK not allowing the BJP anywhere near it, if the DMDK too goes with the DMK then the only option left for the BJP is to explore going with the PMK. In that case it has to endorse Dr Ramadoss as its chief minister candidate, says R Ramasubramanian.
'The BJP will be the ruling party.'
The deaths brought back the focus on NEET in the state, with all political parties but for the BJP opposed to the qualifying exam.
It does not stop here, though. According to field information, state ministers, AIADMK candidates and campaigners are asking BJP cadres accompanying them not to carry party flags at common rallies and also avoid their saffron shawl on those occasions. BJP cadres are also asked to stay out of the common campaign when it enters a minority-dominated areas, especially of Muslims, and re-join later, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The never-before performance, a clean sweep by the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa-headed party coming on a day when she completed three years in office, decimated her opponents, particularly arch-rival DMK, and put her in the driver's seat for the assembly polls due exactly two years from now
'In the last three to four months the BJP vote share in Tamil Nadu, which was 2.86% in 2016, has gone up to about 5%-6%.' 'The AIADMK will lose the minority votes and others who don't like the BJP and Modi.' 'The AIADMK decided to take the risk to get the 5%-6% votes that the BJP will bring in.'
Will the perceived Narendra Modi wave help the National Democratic Alliance re-enact the 1998 spectacular success in Tamil Nadu when it bagged 30 seats in alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is the million dollar question on the minds of the Bharatiya Janata Party workers as the party heads into the April 24 Lok Sabha polls armed with a rainbow combine excluding the two Dravidian majors.
Karunanidhi was convinced that using the 2G cases against the DMK and reopening the fodder case against Lalu Prasad Yadav were products of the Congress leadership's short-sightedness. A revealing excerpt from A S Panneerselvan's Karunanidhi: A Life.
'Reliance Fresh will break the backbone of the rural economy,' says PMK leader Dr S Ramadoss.
A high voter turnout was recorded in West Bengal, Assam Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry assembly elections on Tuesday. The massive polling exercise following COVID-19 health protocol and involving lakhs of personnel began at 7 am and the last hour from 6 pm to 7 pm was set aside for COVID-19 patients and those under isolation. The counting of votes in the states will be held on May 2.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the formation of a seven-party rainbow alliance for the April 24 Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, in its first-ever such electoral venture in the state where the turf has been largely dominated by Dravida Munetra Kazhagam and All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam.
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.
For now, the BJP's strategy for Khushbu seems to be one of denial -- denying the rival Congress in the state and also at the national-level a Muslim voice acceptable to Hindu audiences and TV news-watchers. This is much less than the induction of DMK veterans like Duraiswamy and Selvam, who still have a greater chances of winning assembly seats,, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Protests by supporters of ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and several other outfits, including party affiliated trade unions intensified across the state against the conviction of Jayalalithaa in the disproportionate assets case, seeking her early release.
The young woman's death has led to an outrage on illegal hoardings being put by political parties despite them causing inconvenience and posing a threat to people's safety.
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.
Taking strong exception to Central Board of Secondary Education's Sanskrit Week celebrations in schools under its ambit next month, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday said it would be appropriate to have organised a 'Classical Language Week' in each state based on its linguistic heritage.
After Shah said Hindi is the most spoken language which can unite the nation as a common language, Tamil Nadu parties rallied against it.
Pon Radhakrishnan is also a Union minister of state. His opponent is the richest candidate in Tamil Nadu.
'Most of those involved in these honour killings are the people who belong to the class that feels left out.' 'The high development index in a way is perpetuating conditions that result in social tension.' 'The only solution to the problem is politicise inter-caste marriages.'
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.
A political realignment seems to be on the cards in Tamil Nadu, with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam reaching out to its former leader and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam founder Vaiko.
Subramanian Swamy stole the BJP thunder in Tamil Nadu by meeting DMDK's Vijaykanth in Chennai, and his efforts seem to have paid off, at least in the interim, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are centred on chief ministerial candidates of rival parties. When Sasikala cannot contest even a panchayat election for six years after her release, even if she were to have sympathetic backers even among apolitical voters, she does not have any 'transferrable vote-bank' even otherwise for a chief minister candidate of her choice, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
What happens when two former ministers go up against each other? No sparks fly, reports A Ganesh Nadar from the Arakkonam Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu, but it is the summer heat that has the last word on the campaign.
Days after a sitting Madras High Court Judge was denied entry into a club in Chennai for wearing a dhoti -- the state's traditional attire, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday said it would look into the issue and take action in consultation with its law department.
R Rajagopalan, who travelled through Tamil Nadu, says it will be an election of many firsts.
While the DMK fears that the Congress with its poor strike rate will pull it down in the 2021 state elections, like it did five years ago, the ruling AIADMK is worried that the BJP may ultimately do a Bihar on it, relegating it to second place in Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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