DMK candidate Kathir Anand defeated All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam nominee AC Shanmugham in the bypoll by a narrow margin of 8,141 votes.
The revived factionalism in the AIADMK, if not curbed now, has the potential to split the party vertically, warns N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Our party cadre does not want her in the party.'
Reacting to the criticism, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam said the government could not initially allot space at the Marina beach for burying the DMK leader due to pending cases against construction of memorials on the famous sands.
If Muslims face trouble I will be the first person to raise voice for them, says the Tamil superstar.
Though both the Dravidian majors are facing questions on family politics, the ruling party especially finds itself in the dock since its late leader J Jayalalithaa had often used it to target her party's archrival DMK.
"It is all your imagination and guess work," a senior leader said when asked about reports of Sasikala taking over from Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
For Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dig up the perceived past of the DMK rival, now under a new leader in M K Stalin, may not gel with the voters, both old and new. If they are still going to vote for the AIADMK-BJP combine, it will be for entirely different reasons, and despite Modi's poll speeches, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
After Shah said Hindi is the most spoken language which can unite the nation as a common language, Tamil Nadu parties rallied against it.
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.
Panneerselvam also wanted withdrawal of affidavits submitted to the Election Commission declaring Sasikala and Dinakaran as party general secretary and deputy general secretary, respectively.
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.
Allotting seven seats to smaller allies, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Monday released the list naming candidates for the rest of 227 seats for which she held interviews for ticket aspirants from across Tamil Nadu in the past two weeks.
"The cricket board has been apprised of our sentiments," Fisheries minister D Jayakumar said.
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.
Security has been beefed up at Karunanidhi's Gopalapuram residence as DMK cadre kept pouring in there.
The theatres will start functioning from Friday with the ticket prices set to go up from the present maximum of Rs 120 with the addition of 28 per cent of Goods and Services Tax.
Soundararajan is heard telling the student and the people who gathered at the lounge that a plane was no place to raise slogans.
It looked as if the BJP was hoping to use Rajinikanth to press their seat-bargain with the AIADMK. Now with the Rajini bait gone, the question now is not how much the BJP would settle for, but how much the AIADMK would be ready to offer, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
It remains to be seen whether the Governor goes by the AG's advice for a floor test by the two competing claimants for chief ministership or invites Palanisami to form the government.
Coming out clear on its intent to go it alone in Puducherry, the AIADMK released its candidates list for all the 30 constituencies for the May 16 assembly polls.
Rail and road blockade, demonstrations, and impromptu rallies by the Opposition marked the shutdown in the state affecting normal life to some extent.
At 70, going by hospital records made public, most age and health-related arguments put out against super-star Rajinikanth's entry into politics, before he withdrew citing a 2016 kidney-transplant, hold good for Sasikala, too, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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.
Though EPS has sworn peace for now, or so it seems, his camp is said to be considering the possibility of calling an early meeting of the party's general council, to get a mandate in his favour before things went out of control. Ground-level indications are that OPS had lost his limited base, which alone had forced him to patch up with the other, reportedly at the instance of the BJP ally at the Centre, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a week from now, December 21, voters in R K Nagar in Chennai will decide who their MLA will be.
With both the factions pledging their support, the BJP believes that the natural corollary is for them to now merge and retain the two-leaves election symbol, a view shared by the prime minister as well.
AIADMK had decided to 'de-link' V K Sasikala and Dinakaran from the party.
In the video, the former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo is seen holding a glass and drinking from it, while reportedly watching TV.
Emerging from a "consultative" meeting chaired by Chief Minister E K Palaniswami, Finance Minister D Jayakumar declared that the "unanimous" decision was taken in tune with the aspirations of the party cadres and people.
Dinakaran recalled the difficulties faced by party workers in carrying forward their organisational work without a name.
The BJP has been pushing the two AIADMK groups to merge and then get the Sasikala clan out of the party and government.
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.
'It may take the AIADMK much more convincing than already, not only to try and bring around even the one-time Muslim voters of the party. 'More importantly, the party leadership may find it even more difficult to convince traditional party voters and cadres, who had admired Jaya's nonchalance to the party and leader ruling the Centre,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The state government held talks with the protesting youth to sort out the matter.
A meeting presided over by Palaniswami said the appointment of Dinakaran as deputy general secretary was against party rules.
This is ISRO's new record of launching 20 satellites, including those from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia.
The AIADMK supremo retained 13 of her ministers, who were in the previous cabinet, besides inducting 17 new faces including four women.
For Rajnikanth, who the BJP is wooing, politics looks more likely to happen in 2019, although his friend Kamalahaasan could afford to wait a little longer, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
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