Ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Member of Legsilative Assembly P Dhanapal on Wednesday became the first Dalit Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and said he would strive to uphold the ethos of the House. Party supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa led the assembly in greeting the 61 year-old Dhanapal, who was elected unopposed.
The DMK will not stop till Tamil Nadu got exemption from the central qualifying test, Stalin said.
'Tamil Nadu is a state of temples, it's a holy land. People don't seem to realise that.'
DMDK leader Vijaykant is observing a one-day token fast at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to express solidarity with the minority Tamil population in Sri Lanka. Addressing his supporters in Tamil, the actor-turned-politician alleged that fishermen from Tamil Nadu were being kidnapped and killed, while they were out fishing on the high seas.Vijaykant, an actor-turned-legislator in the Tamil Nadu assembly, is known as the 'Black MGR' among his fans and followers.
In a resolution adopted in the assembly, the Jayalalithaa government sought diplomatic efforts by India to change any possible pro-Lanka stand adopted by America in the United Nation rights body.
The Bharat Mata controversy in Kerala shows how political and symbolic fights between the state and the Centre have taken attention away from education, throwing the state's oldest university into confusion and disorder, observes Shyam G Menon.
Udhayanidhi's 'untimely' elevation as deputy CM may be used against the party, for critics to argue that the DMK's 'first family's is not concerned about anything else but their clan's welfare. If packaged and delivered properly, some of the sting may stick at election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Women' as a political constituency appears to be an idea that has come of age. It is changing India in ways that we only dimly understand, asserts Aditi Phadnis.
Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members were on Monday evicted enmasse from Tamil Nadu Assembly with a couple of them being handed a two-day suspension for disrupting the proceedings.
'This government is not in the hands of M K Stalin but in the hands of the bureaucracy -- the IAS and IPS.'
A fiery verbal exchange between Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam leader Vijayakanth and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the Tamil Nadu assembly on Wednesday resulted in the DMDK being evicted. Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier talks to analysts and politicians to find out what impact it would have on the political situation in Tamil Nadu.
Hundreds of anti-nuclear activists and leaders of different political outfits were detained in Chennai on Monday when they attempted to lay siege to the Tamil Nadu assembly demanding scrapping of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. S Saraswathi reports.
Stalin, in an interview to a daily, has refuted the FM's allegations, saying "everyone present in the Assembly knew it was a drama enacted by herself," referring to the late Jayalalithaa.
A one-day special assembly session convened in the midst of the heightened tensions between the two states on the dam issue passed the resolution reasserting the state's right over the 116-year old dam which Kerala wants to be demolished to build a new one on safety concernsA resolution moved by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that 'Tamil Nadu cannot lose its rights over false propaganda by Kerala' on the safety of the century-old reservoir.
Around 75 per cent polling was registered in the byelection to Tamil Nadu Assembly from Sankarankovil (SC) constituency on Sunday and the exercise was 'by and large peaceful', Election officials said.
On one hand, South Indian states have been complaining about denial of a proportionate portion of the sharable funds from the Centre, based on population. On the other hand, they stand to lose Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seats that again are based on population, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The new Waqf bill sows the seed for conflict in every town and village of India.'
If 74.9 per cent of NRI voters are from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh at 6.4 per cent, Maharashtra at 4.7 per cent, Tamil Nadu and Telangana at 2.9 per cent each follow way behind.
They just wanted their angst noticed, and as a symbol of recognition, Jallikattu, restored without the annual ritual of court cases and adjournments, explains N Sathya Moorthy.
Capitalising on the boycott by main opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Democratic Progressive Alliance on Friday expectedly swept the by-polls to five Tamil Nadu assembly seats, trouncing actor-politician Vijaykant's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam by impressive margins.
A war of words erupted between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the DMDK over a hike in bus fares and milk prices last year, which soon turned into a one-on-one clash between Jayalalithaa and Vijayakanth with members on either side up on their feet, causing noisy scenes.
A chance meeting between Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Union minister Kiren Rijiju at the Tulip Garden in Srinagar has sparked a political storm, with opposition parties accusing the National Conference of laying out a red carpet for the BJP leader in the aftermath of the Waqf Amendment Act. While NC sources termed the interaction as a purely coincidental encounter, opposition parties like the PDP and Peoples' Conference condemned the meeting, accusing the NC of surrendering to the BJP. The Waqf (Amendment) Bill, passed by Parliament last week, aims to streamline the management of Waqf properties with provisions to safeguard heritage sites and promote social welfare.
AIADMK MLAs were on Wednesday suspended till Friday by Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker R Avudaiyappan after they were evicted from the House en masse for creating rumpus over remarks made by a ruling DMK member.
The constitution of a committee by the Centre to explore the feasibility of "one nation, one election" has opened up the possibility of Lok Sabha polls being advanced so that they could be held with a string of state assembly polls.
Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Members of Legislative Assembly, including M K Stalin, the leader of its Legislature Wing, were on Monday suspended for two days from the Tamil Nadu Assembly for unruly behaviour in the House. Stalin and party MLAs Govi Chezhiyan, Thangam Thennarasu and Moideen Khan had to be physically removed by Marshals after they squatted in front of the Chair of Speaker P Dhanapal.
Chandrayaan-4 will involve at least two separate launches of the heavylift LVM-3 rocket that will carry five different components of the mission which will be assembled in orbit.
Amid a growing chorus in the party for his elevation, Tamil Nadu sports minister and son of Chief Minister M K Stalin, Udhayanidhi, was elevated as the deputy CM on Saturday with additional responsibility, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw the return of V Senthil Balaji to the council of ministers two days after securing bail in a money laundering case.
Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Saturday played down reports of his possible elevation as Deputy Chief Minister and said Chief Minister M K Stalin has to take a call on the issue.
The Congress's second AICC session in Gujarat post-Independence is being held on the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's party presidency and the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Stalin, moving the resolution, said without giving any reasons, Ravi had returned the Bills, mentioning "I withhold Assent" to them.
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) founder-leader and actor Vijayakanth passed into the ages in Chennai, aged 71, after testing positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
Leader of the House K Anbazhagan moved the resolution seeking to suspend A K Bose who represents Thiruparakundram constituency for Thursday's incident in the House.
Annamalai has faced criticism for the breakup between the AIADMK and the BJP, but BJP leaders say 'he attracts youth, who needs change'.
In his first response to the issue, Stalin, president of the ruling DMK, said Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) has already responded to the matter twice.
About 140 people out of 193 who were admitted to various government medical facilities after they consumed the spurious liquor on Tuesday night were currently stable, Kallakurichi district collector M S Prasanth said.
New Union minister L Murugan's declaration of Kongu Nadu as his native place, instead of Tamil Nadu, may be part of a grand BJP strategy to create new states out of existing ones, particularly those that have anti-BJP governments, mulls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Speaker K Kalimuthu issued arrest warrants against editor N Ravi, executive editor Malini Parthasarthy, publisher S Rangarajan, chief of bureau V Jayant and special correspondent Radha Venkatesan.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is hopeful that the issue will come handy to its efforts to gain political traction in Dravidian state as it gears up for the Lok Sabha polls.
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