The participation of the two veteran actors assumes significance in view of their recent statements suggesting that they could be joining politics.
Putting up a spirited performance in the assembly by-polls despite its Lok Sabha debacle, the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu has won nine of the 22 segments where elections were held in two phases in April and May.
From planting seedlings to holding feasts and shutting down 500 liquor shops, Tamil Nadu government is going all out to uphold Jayalalithaa's fame on her 69th birth anniversary.
OPS said Jayalalithaa had turned the AIADMK into 'an iron fortress which cannot be shaken by anyone'.
Second-line AIADMK leaders and cadres alike say that by starting the talks first with the BJP and committing the party to an alliance without discussing seat-sharing, the leadership might have commenced the coalition discourse at the wrong end. According to them, even 20 seats for the BJP may be too many, says 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.
Looming before it is a court case filed by 18 legislators dismissed by the speaker, challenging his decision and pointing out that in a similar situation 12 members of the O Panneerselvam faction were not dismissed, reports A Ganesh Nadar.
For the current woes of the state to end, in city after city, town after town, village after village, unauthorised constructions have to be removed, no questions asked, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
According to the Chief Minister, Pallikal will receive a government 'high cash incentive' of Rs 60 lakh for winning two silver medals, while Chinnappa and Ghosal will get Rs 30 lakh each for their respective single silver medals.
Kumar reportedly accused the financier of charging exorbitant interest on some loans obtained by him, and harassing him over the same.
Bala, 36, was arrested in Chennai on Sunday on a complaint by District Collector Sandeep Nanduri, who was also caricatured in the cartoon, along with the city police chief.
Bala was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed by Tiruneveli District Collector Sandeep Nanduri, who was also caricatured in the cartoon along with the city police chief, police said.
The apex court, in a plethora of verdicts, has given varying judicial opinions on Speakers' powers ranging from refusing to intervene in the matter to assuming the role of the Speaker itself and going to the extent of disqualifying lawmakers under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.
The AIADMK's staying power is not in question, but it has to regain the winning streak. That will require its leaders and leadership to re-wire themselves, to be able to re-think situations in ways different from what they had been accustomed to, suggests Sathiya Moorthy.
Expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala on Monday returned to Tamil Nadu to a grand reception, days after completing her four-year jail term in Bengaluru in a corruption case, amid indications of a confrontation with the ruling party which she once controlled.
An adverse judgement could have triggered a political realignment in Tamil Nadu and brought the ruling party perilously close to losing its majority in the state assembly whose effective strength is 232. Two seats are vacant.
Rajini-Kamal duo cannot do harm to the AIADMK-led alliance in the state electorally, Jayakumar said.
AIADMK-Amma led by Palaniswami accused the O Panneerselvam faction of "refusing" to come for talks.
The real battle for NEET abolition can take much more time and energy, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
His call logs, WhatsApp messages and SMSes are also being examined, police said.
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.
Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiagarajan has proclaimed his determination to set Tamil Nadu's fiscal house in order in five years, and Friday will show how he plans to go about it when he rises to present the Stalin government's maiden budget, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Scorching heat and delayed monsoon have crippled Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu with an acute water crisis.
The proposed lockdown, sans present relaxations, will be implemented from June 19 to 30 and on two Sundays (June 21 and 28) there shall be a full scale shutdown without any relaxations.
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.
'The last four years was not Dravidian rule, it was BJP rule by proxy.'
Key Dinakaran aide and legislator P Vetrivel said they would meet the governor at 10 am on Tuesday.
Former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam has urged All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLAs to vote against the vote of confidence sought by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, stating they should not aid a "family rule" and supporting the motion would amount to betraying late party chief Jayalalithaa and people who voted for party.
The deaths brought back the focus on NEET in the state, with all political parties but for the BJP opposed to the qualifying exam.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Chennai to a grand welcome on Friday, a visit that comes soon after the recent episode of turbulence in bilateral ties over India's decision to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir's special status and reorganise the state into two union territories.
The cyclone lay about 720 km east northeast of Chennai over the Bay on Monday and it is very likely to move west southwestwards and intensify further into a severe cyclonic storm by Tuesday.
With the presidential elections over, the time has come for Prime Minister Modi to show Tamil Nadu that the state's interests are safe under him, says R Rajagopalan.
Stalin disapproved of the act of some his party legislators sitting in the chair of Speaker P Dhanapal in the assembly.
The new entrants in Tamil Nadu politics, actor-turned-politicians Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, have decided to stay away from the elections, reports T E Narasimhan.
Top BJP leaders, including its president Amit Shah, reached out to their allies as well as other parties with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar expressing confidence that the government will get support from 'new' parties.
The ceremony will be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Indications are that Modi will have words of encouragement for Stalin, and the meeting is likely to be much less acrimonious than critics of either would want it to be. notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
At a time when investors are taking a "wait and watch" approach on fresh investment, Tamil Nadu in the past 10 months has signed 63 MoUs, enabling investment worth Rs 19,083 crore. After Palaniswami took over as chief minister in February 2017, cumulative FDI rose by Rs 46,427 crore from Rs 133 trillion (April 2000 to March 2017) to Rs 180 trillion by June this year. Thanks to the Tamil Nadu Business Facilitation Act, 2018, and the single window for applying and getting clearance for doing business, the ease of business issue has been addressed.
They were speaking at a function to mark the release of 'Defying the Paradigm,' a coffee table book on Srinivasan's 50-year journey with India Cements.
'The BJP will be the ruling party.'
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