Opposing invitation to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for Narendra Modi's swearing-in as the prime minister, Bharatiya Janata Party ally Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Saturday announced a black flag demonstration against the head of the island republic in Delhi on May 26.
Will the AIADMK acknowledge the role of CAA and the anti-CAA protests, both inside the state and outside, as among the causes for the current electoral reversal, as many in the party now want? It is unlikely to be so, but then the pressure will increase on the leadership to reassess the BJP alliance at one level and the 'blind support' for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial policies on the other, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Amid the raging controversy over a conversion bid by some Sangh Parivar outfits, Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah on Sunday asserted that such incidents would not derail the party-led National Democratic Alliance government from its development agenda.
The 65-year-old Stalin's elevation comes about three weeks after the death of his father and party president M Karunanidhi.
Verifiable 'distress-sharing' of available water may still be the way out of the Cauvery water row, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Why did Kamal Haasan name the leaders he did?
Two days ago, Jayalalithaa had cancelled her visit at the eleventh hour saying that she was unwell and hence, giving former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu centrestage in talks with Kalam.
The road for the Opposition is full of 'ifs' and 'buts', reports Sunil Gatade.
The presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was not the only reason why Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa stayed away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram is Congress nominee from Maharashtra for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha while senior leaders Kapil Sibal and Jairam Ramesh have been named from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka respectively.
Polling will be held in all 13 seats in Punjab and an equal number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, nine in West Bengal, eight seats each in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and the lone seat Chandigarh.
'Silencing citizens has become a major institutional process under this regime.' 'The anti-Indian argument is a bogey -- meant to silence independent thinking people in India and turn us into goats and sheep.'
Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar also said that an alliance similar to the one stitched up in Bihar is needed at the national level for the next Lok Sabha elections.
"Unless we hear from herself I am not going to believe any story that has been put up quoting her. She is a part of our United National Progressive Alliance and will continue to remain one," he said.
The CPI said it did not understand why the government had to give som much land at low price for a private player.
President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Rajapaksa will transform Sri Lanka's political landscape after Thursday's electoral triumph, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran Colombo watcher.
The great Indian election is over and now the wait for the results is shrinking with every passing moment. Though exit polls hint at a cakewalk for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his National Democratic Alliance, there are some battles which will be keenly observed on the result day.
Yechury has dropped enough hints that a fight is in the offing at the Hyderabad conclave in April, where any member may move an amendment to the draft on the party's electoral line. Archis Mohan reports.
Shashank Manohar is all set to once again become the Board of Control for Cricket in India president with the ruling Anurag Thakur faction as well as Sharad Pawar group projecting him as the consensus candidate for the post left vacant by Jagmohan Dalmiya's demise.
Exhorting her supporters to ensure a "complete win" for the party so that the United Progressive Alliance could be ousted from the Centre, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday said her party would fight the next Lok Sabha polls on the plank of peace, prosperity and progress.
With DMK's M K Stalin coming into his own, and the rival AIADMK too leaving no space for third parties, Tamil Nadu will remain a Dravidian stronghold for a long time, 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
'As soon as the BJP feels they are going to lose power, they will publish the caste census data of 2011 and conduct the caste census of 2021.'
The tough question before the DMK and its leader MK Stalin now is, what should their response be if sounded out for an alliance by the BJP for or after the next parliamentary polls, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The development came a day after the protesting farmers rejected the Centre's offer to start talks as soon as they move to Burari and continued to stay put Singhu and Tikri borders of the national capital.
The chief minister may have Prime Minister Modi's backing.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury was in Chennai on Saturday and AIADMK sources said Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa could be sounded as convenor for the proposed Third Front. Aditi Phadnis reports
'Those in the BJP are more keen to make India Hindia!' says MDMK Chairman L.Ganesan.
'The Godse controversy may have helped Kamal Haasan reach out to a larger audience, both inside the state and outside, coming as it does when the main campaign for elections 19 is over and only those in the four assembly bypoll constituencies are drudging along,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
If the Congress lost in Tamil Nadu in 1967, never to return, or the DMK and the AIADMK have kept their place in power and electoral politics since then, it owes not to their love or hatred for gods or for one religion over another. Instead, they had always been linked to performance and incumbency/anti-incumbency factors. There may be something in such constructs for Rajini's strategic team to consider, especially if the superstar is to enter direct politics by around this time next year. But then, they would need to brush up their homework more than at present, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The TDP supremo said he had not contacted any party yet but given the 'TDP's credibility' they were supporting the no-trust motion.
Assembly elections are due in the summer of 2016 in five places: Assam, West Bengal in the east and Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in the south
Now that Tamil Nadu's tallest politician is no more, it remains to be seen how new political re-alignments could shape up, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Party leaders, sources said, maintained that Congress cannot afford to have a new leader at the helm for rebuilding the organisation at this juncture and that the responsibility for the defeat is collective and not individual.
'Having learnt her lesson in popular democracy, Jaya would become more populist than the DMK and more so than the imagery that mentor MGR had created in the Tamil voter's mind, both as an individual and as an elected ruler.'
'There is little doubt that his exertions are among the reasons why Narendra Damodardas Modi routinely lambastes the dynasty at nearly all his rallies, suggesting that he regards the Congress's First Family as a bigger threat than any other political formation,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
Cautioning the Peoples Democratic Party against forging an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress party on Tuesday hoped that party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed would take a decision that best suits the "current political consensus" that has evolved in the state.
The Centre has put the blame on state governments while state governments complain that money is not released for the proposals given by them to the Empowered Committee that has been tasked with recommending proposals to be funded under this framework.
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