Four and a half crore voters will decide the fate of 2,773 candidates.
Reflecting further strains in his party's ties with Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Karunanidhi has blamed the Centre for the arrest of his daughter Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case.
As of now, 1,77,500 people have been housed in over 351 camps, the chief minister said, adding food, and medical amenities were being provided to them by the government.
The quaint little village of Perumapalayam near Erode is excited about Indian American, Dr Celine Gounder making it to the United States President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board since she has her roots in it and for her continuing support to its residents.
Shobha Warrier analyses why Srirangam, with its large chunk of Vaishnavite Brahmin population, makes perfect sense for All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha decision to contest an election from there.
M Karunanidhi was a masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, wielding considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time and sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Farmers and opposition parties in Tamil Nadu on Monday staged rail roko agitation at various places in the state demanding the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board immediately.
Police said 27 deaths were reported on Tuesday in the Niligiris district alone due to landslides in various places. Of the total toll, 37 people died in Niligiris, five each in Tiruvarur and Villupuram districts, three each in Dindigul and Tirunelveli, two each in Cuddalore, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar and Vellore and one each in Chennai, Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur,Tiruchirappalli, Perambalur, Madurai, Kaniyakumari, Tiruvannamalai and Theni districts.
If Sasikala wants to stay in active politics, she will have to go to EPS crawling, reports Aditi Phadnis.
At least 70 people were killed and thousands rendered homeless in incessant rains in the state as cyclone Nisha that has crossed the Tamil Nadu coast near Karaikal left behind a trail of destruction. The cyclone, which crossed the Tamil Nadu coast near Karaikal on Thursday, wreaked havoc there and in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Tiruvarur district, the Met office said.
Flight services were disrupted in Karnataka while in Tamil Nadu, heavy rains battered Karur, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and coastal Pudukkottai and Nagapattinam districts.
Both OPS and EPS say positive results are expected soon.
Subsequently, Nivar weakened into a cyclonic storm and further into a deep depression, centered about 50 km west-southwest of Tirupati at 1430 hrs, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials said. According to IMD, it is to weaken into a depression during the next six hours.
The Met office also warned of strong winds with speeds reaching 80 and 90 kmph along the north Tamil Nadu coast.\n
Sharp showers continued to lash many parts of Tamil Nadu, including capital Chennai, resulting in water-logging in many areas and forcing closure of schools in the city even as the weather office forecast more rains.
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).
Distribution of sweets, welfare assistance and blood donation by party workers were among the highlights of celebrations of the 93rd birthday of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi on Friday.
The pilots have been "derostered" pending investigation, Air India Express later said in a statement.
Thiruvaiyuru, where composer-saint Tyagaraja lived, is an annual pilgrimage for Carnatic musicians, eminent and unknown, young and old.
Public is requested to take all safety measures and fishermen are advised not to venture into sea.
A new low pressure over south east Bay of Bengal was expected to bring more rains to Tamil Nadu, where the death toll rose to 184.
Calculated or otherwise, if Azhagiri's firing of the first salvo after Karunanidhi's death does not create some space for him to politico-electorally exploit at a later date, there may not be any space left for him at all, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
The AIADMK bagged 134 seats as counting of votes was taken up for 232 of the 234 assembly constituencies. Polling in two constituencies has been postponed to May 23.
The front-runner of course is party treasurer and long-serving party legislator, S Duraimurugan. A Vanniar by caste from the rival PMK-strong northern belt, Duraimurugan makes up for his weak political grounding through his debating skills in the assembly, and witty repartee, both inside and outside. Apart from caste and regional representation, personal loyalty to the leader would count even more -- but there is no death of loyal and competent candidates in the party for the post, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagham leader is set to embark on a series of protests covering the Cauvery basin regions of Tamil Nadu beginning Saturday.
Kanimozhi told reporters that the Palaniswami-led government has become 'bloodthirsty' and the chief minister should be held responsible for the incident.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam led the strike against the Centre.
The searches at the Tamil television channel were conducted over alleged tax evasion.
Continuing their protest against the conviction of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa for the third day, party workers and sympathisers on Monday observed a fast and staged demonstrations across the state.
Even though V K Sasikala's relatives may be calling the shots within the AIADMK and the Tamil Nadu government now, the 'Mannargudi clan' doesn't have a future in state politics, reports R Rajagopalan.
Sasikala's name is doing the rounds for the general secretary's job, but it is one thing for Sasikala to acquire power under Jayalalithaa's wing and quite another when the CM is somebody else, says Aditi Phadnis.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders condoled the death of the seer.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam workers on Sunday organised poojas in temples and took out processions praying for a favourable judgement.
The Met department forecast heavy to very heavy showers in north coastal Tamil Nadu till Saturday.
'Of equal importance was the AIADMK's precarious assembly membership, what with 11 of its MLAs including deputy chief minister OPS facing court cases for disqualification and by-elections due in another 21. To shore up the party's numbers for anticipated eventuality on the 11-MLAs' front, the AIADMK leadership in general and chief minister EPS in particular, were even more focussed on assembly seats than LS seats, just now,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to facilitate a dialogue between fishermen associations in the state and Sri Lanka in Chennai in December following frequent attacks and arrests of fishermen by naval personnel of the island nation.
The DMK combine has won 37 of the 38 LS constituencies in Tamil Nadu, and bagged 13 of the 22 assembly bypolls. What swept away the AIADMK-BJP alliance in the southern state was not dravidian ideology but job loss and graft bias, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The storage of water in the six major reservoirs in the state was just 6.2 per cent of capacity as of April 27, 2017, reports T E Narasimhan and Gireesh Babu.
Given the twin embarrassments of a TTV win and party nominee Karu Nagarajan losing his deposit, polling fewer votes than NOTA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP boss Amit Shah would be pushed to rethink their strategy. Tamil Nadu would thus become a part of the BJP's grander strategy for 2019 rather than a stand-alone affair, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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