'Chief Minister Palaniswami is meeting Modi on December, 19, he may mention Tamil refugees when he talks to him.'
A new political crisis is brewing in the VK Sasikala camp in Tamil Nadu -- differences between Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and party general secretary Sasikala.
Never before in the history of the Republic has an election in the state mattered so much as it does now, observes Virendra Kapoor.
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.
A meeting presided over by Palaniswami said the appointment of Dinakaran as deputy general secretary was against party rules.
The historic coastal town is witnessing a flurry of activity, including infrastructure development in view of the high-level meet between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping next week.
Protests were held across Tamil Nadu with raising of slogans-- "Vendum Vendum Kudineer Vendum" (we want water) and "Edappadi Arasai Kandikirom" (we condemn chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy's government).
Expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala on Monday returned to Tamil Nadu to a grand reception, days after completing her four-year jail term in Bengaluru in a corruption case, amid indications of a confrontation with the ruling party which she once controlled.
IMD said on Tuesday that the cyclone has a wind speed of 100-110 kmph and gusting to 120 kmph. The coastal areas of Tamil Nadu are expected to receive heavy rain between November 23-26.
The sidelined leader's victory is being seen as a worrying development both for AIADMK and principal opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which finished third behind the ruling party.
The depression over southwest and adjoining southeast Bay of Bengal moved west-northwestwards with a speed of 11 kmph and lay centred at 1130 hrs of Monday over the same region, about 520 km east-southeast of Puducherry and 560 km southeast of Chennai, the Indian Meterological Department said.
The dispute arose after Nissan alleged that Tamil Nadu hadn't paid certain incentives under a 2008 agreement to set up a car plant at Oragadam, near Chennai.
The decision was taken after a discussion between the disqualified legislators and Dhinakaran in Madurai.
Government and private bus transport services, now allowed within districts barring Chennai, its nearby areas and Madurai would cease to be operational from July 1 to 15, the government said.
'The AIADMK gets votes from all sections of the minorities.' 'By aligning with the BJP the AIADMK stands to lose that vote'
The government order said it endorsed the recent closure direction of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, and also asked the TNPCB to "seal the unit and close the plant permanently".
Putting up a spirited performance in the assembly by-polls despite its Lok Sabha debacle, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu has won nine of the 22 segments where elections were held in two phases in April and May.
The fracas between Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam on Monday over who will be projected as the CM candidate in next year's assembly polls not only points to a possibility of another vertical split in Tamil Nadu's ruling party but will also come as sweet music for the opposition DMK which in the past stood to gain from the AIADMK's squabbles, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ending its decade long stint in the opposition, even relegated to the third spot in the House in 2011, the M K Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam made a spirited comeback to the ruling saddle to unseat its rival the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M K Stalin will try his luck once again from Kolathur constituency in Chennai in the April 6 Tamil Nadu assembly elections while his son Udhayanidhi will make his electoral debut by contesting from the Chepauk-Triplicane segment in the metropolis.
Dharmapuri district Child Welfare Officer J Raja Meenakshi has filed a complaint with the Chennai city police alleging that the minister demanded Rs 20 lakh to transfer her to Chennai.
Also present at Soundarya's reception: Tamil Nadu CM, deputy CM, ministers, other powerful politicians and, of course, movie stars...
The deaths brought back the focus on NEET in the state, with all political parties but for the BJP opposed to the qualifying exam.
A formal decision would be made on the Chief Ministerial candidate of the NDA once the Election Commission issues the notification for the assembly elections, expected in April-May, he said, adding the strategy was part of the ongoing exercise to strengthen the BJP in the state.
The workers, who cleaned the statue, demanded the arrest of the culprits and warned that they would intensify their agitation if such incidents recurred, police said.
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.
Commenting on unruly behaviour of his MLAs in the assembly, Stalin said the DMK 'has never' encouraged violence.
'It is not a merger. It is a commercial agreement reached for self-interest,' he said.
He appealed to Kerala to extend cooperation to store full water in the Mullaiperiyar dam.
The new entrants in Tamil Nadu politics, actor-turned-politicians Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, have decided to stay away from the elections, reports T E Narasimhan.
'The people of Tamil Nadu are fed up of these people, whether it is Panneerselvam or Palaniswami.'
Under the deal, the PMK will be supporting the AIADMK in the bypolls expected to 21 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, he said.
Heavy security has also been put in place at the Chepauk area ahead of the protest as protesters proposed to lay siege to the Secretariat and the District Collector's office against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
"The result of the RK Nagar bypoll is an outcome of the tacit understanding between DMK working president M K Stalin and Dinakaran," Panneerselvam and Palaniswami said in a joint statement on Sunday night.
There were no reports of loss of life due to the cyclone which uprooted trees. Incidents of wall collapse were reported from some parts of Tamil Nadu, state Revenue Minister R B Udhayakumar said.
Stalin, 68, was contesting as the chief ministerial candidate for the first time during these polls. He was elected unopposed as the DMK chief in August 2018, after the death of his father, a post that Karunanidhi held for 49 years. That didn't come as a surprise to anyone, as during his lifetime, Karunanidhi, on multiple occasions made his preference for his successor abundantly clear and systematically groomed him for the job.
'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.'
State Finance Minister D Jayakumar said such "politics of opportunism" will not succeed.
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.
The OPS-led faction said the rival camp headed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami was 'in a state of confusion'..
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances