In a terse note to the prime minister, Union Minister of Fertilisers M K Alagiri has opposed the UPA-2 government's move to decontrol urea that was left out from the 2010 policy enforced on the phosphatic and potassic fertilisers known as NPK, pointing out the disaster of allowing the manufacturers and importers instead of the government to fix the maximum retail price of these fertilisers.
Union minister and senior Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam leader M K Alagiri, along with 52 other members of his party, has been booked by the police in connection with the alleged assault of an election official and a videographer at a village in the district. Tahsildar M Kalimuthu, who is the assistant returning officer for Melur assembly segment, and a videographer, part of a flying squad, were allegedly assaulted by DMK men when they videographed Alagiri's visit to a temple.
Tamil Nadu Industries Minister S P Velumani has alleged that a granites firm owned by Dayanidhi Alagiri, Union Minister M K Alagiri's son, has been indulging in illegal quarrying of granite worth crores of rupees in and around Melur near Madurai.
With the Election Commission keeping a hawk's eye on affairs, the usually flamboyant campaigning for Tamil Nadu polls has turned somewhat colourless, finds A Ganesh Nadar
Eighty-six-year-old Karunanidhi, accompanied by his sons Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin and Union Minister M K Alagiri, filed his papers before the election officer Jayaraj.
A day after Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam announced its decision to pull out of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, the party said today that its ministers would submit their resignations on Monday.
Putting a lid on the succession war, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Sunday decided that it would be continued to be led by 88-year-old M Karunanidhi, and gave no indication of pulling out of the United Progressive Alliance coalition at the Centre.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has removed Union Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri and Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran from two key sub-committees of the Union Cabinet. Both Alagiri and Maran are leaders of the Congress's ally DMK. In the wake of the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam, involving DMK leader and then telecom minister A Raja, the PM has been careful about allocating sensitive positions to the party's leaders.
Amid reports that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Union Minister M K Alagiri has submitted his resignation from the Union Cabinet to party president Karunanidhi, DMK leader TR Baalu met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi to discuss "alliance matters".
The general council of the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam will meet in Chennai on February 3 to discuss and decide the seat arrangements for the upcoming assembly elections with its allies.Karunanidhi announced this decision after rejecting a resignation letter from his son and Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri from the post of the DMK's organising secretary.Alagiri has sought action against DMK leader A Raja, who had to resign as the telecom minister over the massive 2G scam.
The National Advisory Council, headed by United Progressive Alliance Chairman Sonia Gandhi, will also meet on Thursday to look at the Food Security Bill, a crucial component of the second UPA government's promise to provide cheap and plentiful food to the poor.
Union minister MK Alagiri has shifted his base from Madurai to New Delhi since last week. After a massive rout in Tamil Nadu, MK Alagiri has now shifted his attention to Delhi.
Alagiri's father and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, his younger brother and Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin, and other members of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's first family were present at the reception held under very tight security. Former Union telecom minister A Raja, who quit over the 2G spectrum scam, was seen standing near Karunanidhi for a long time, chatting with him at times
Besides Mukherjee and Deora, the EGoM would have power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, fertiliser minister M K Alagiri, law minister Veerappa Moily and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
"I will contest (for the post) If I am alive after one year," he told media persons in Chennai in what is seen as a message to his sons union Minister M K Alagiri and M K Stalin to put an end to the tug of war on the succession issue.
The two parties are deadlocked over on a deal over sharing of seats following DMK's decision on Saturday to pull out its ministers from the UPA government over Congress attitude.
Talks between Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders M K Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran late on Monday night appeared to have made no headway in securing a breakthrough in the stalemate on seat-sharing between the two parties for Tamil Nadu assembly polls though DMK put on hold its decision to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance government.
The Election Commission on Saturday issued a show cause notice to Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M K Alagiri for allegedly violating model code of conduct ahead of the April 13 assesmbly polls in Tamil Nadu.
Union Ministers and Ministers of State will now require the Prime Minister's prior approval before going on official foreign tours and they will also have to keep the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) informed about their private foreign visits.
'Attack' Pandi, believed to be a key aide of Union Minister and senior DMK leader, M K Alagiri, was arrested on Frinday in Madurai for allegedly making changes to a lease agreement over a house by fraudulent means.
Breaking his silence, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Friday denied his son and Union Minister M K Alagiri had offered to resign from the Cabinet. "These are media reports. Let them continue to be media reports. He has not given any letter to me," Karunanidhi told mediapersons in his first comments on the issue.
Union Minister M K Alagiri is taking his mother Dayalu Ammal to the US for a health check-up.
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.
Chemical and Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri, who has been criticised in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for his prolonged absence during Parliament sessions, is again taking off for another holiday. This time, the 'frequent flyer' minister is traveling to the United States to visit his daughter and grandchild. Alagiri is going on a ten-day leave from his ministerial duties. And interestingly, the prime minister's office has approved his visit to the US.
Madurai, the second largest city in Tamil Nadu, is known as the gateway to the south of the state. It is famous for its Meenakshi temple and Thirumal Nayakar's palace. The Vaigai river flows through the city, though there is not much water flowing in it in the summer months.
He said that Stalin has come a long way from organising youth under the party in his younger days to moulding himself as a future leader of the DMK.
Alagiri's remarks reignited the succession war that appeared to have been settled with the promotion of his younger sibling M K Stalin as deputy chief minister last year by Karunanidhi, with Alagiri himself being promoted to national politics after being inducted into the Union Cabinet.
Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M K Alagiri on Wednesday said that he had not offered to resign from the Union cabinet or from the post of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 's south zone secretary.
'It is so invigorating, nobody gets tired of it,' says Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilisers Srikant Jena.
Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri who has been criticised in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for his prolonged absence during Parliament's ongoing budget session has, in fact, been flying off to Chennai or Madurai every third day.
A day after the opposition raised questions over "perpetual" absence of Union Minister M K Alagiri from Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said on Friday that even she had not received any communication about his whereabouts.
Asserting that his father and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was his leader, Union Minister M K Alagiri said on Thursday that he would stand for the party president's post in future if there was a contest.
Union Minister M K Alagiri will no longer have to fight shy of Parliament on the ground that he is not well-versed in English or Hindi.
When Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee entered the Committee Room in North Block for the empowered group of ministers' meeting on fuel price hike on Monday, he found Communications Minister A Raja already sitting there.
"Stalin is the future of the party," said late Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam patriarch M Karunanidhi about six years ago at a party meet when his son was party treasurer.
Many bureaucrats in Sashtri Bhavan where the fertiliser ministry is housed are totally disenchanted and disgruntled over the unique behaviour of the union minister of fertilisers.
Suspended Dravida Munetra Kazhagam leader M K Alagiri, who spoke to our correspondent from Madurai, says that he welcomes Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi becoming the country's prime minister.
Security has been beefed up at Karunanidhi's Gopalapuram residence as DMK cadre kept pouring in there.
Suspended Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M K Alagiri on Friday met Tamil super star Rajnikanth at his Poes Garden residence in Chennai
Amid the simmering sibling rivalry in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's first family that triggered the suspension of his elder son M K Alagiri from the party, DMK chief M Karunanidhi has written to the Prime Minister seeking additional security for his younger son Stalin
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