Nitish has been engaging with national and regional party leaders in recent months as part of his mission to strengthen 'Opposition unity'.
France-based automobile manufacturer Renault and Japan-headquartered Nissan on Monday committed investments of $600 million (around Rs 5,300 crore) in the country 15 years after foraying into the Tamil Nadu automobile industry. The fresh round of investments would witness roll out of six new models between the two companies including -- two electric vehicles -- representing the two global brands, Nissan Global chief operating officer and Member, Alliance Board Ashwani Gupta said in Chennai.
'Most leaders, from Lalu Yadav and Mamata to M K Stalin, respect and trust Sonia. She should continue unless she expressly declines.'
Is the unusually and unbearably scorching Sun and the general laxity, bordering on laziness, among voters, responsible, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has honoured Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain refugees by giving them citizenship through Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday and maintained there is no provision of stripping of anyone's citizenship in the new law.
The state government said these bills had been pending with the governor for as long as about two years and his action "subverted" the functioning of the state legislature, rendering its very existence "ineffective and otiose".
The Congress said the rally by the INDIA will send a "strong message" to the Lok Kalyan Marg, where the prime minister's residence is located, that the BJP-led government's "time is up".
Stalin told the Manipur chief minister in a letter dated July 31 that he has been informed that more than 50,000 people were staying in relief camps due to the 'prevailing situation' in the northeastern state, apparently referring to the violence there.
By keeping the Sanatana Dharma row alive and adding the Ayodhya temple consecration scheduled for January 22 and adding the free darshan promise from four polled states to the entire country, the BJP may have a self-fulfilling concoction, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
The alliance leaders are getting together for the third round of the brainstorming session in Mumbai, after Patna and Bengaluru, to chalk out their common campaign strategy to take on the NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi shared moments together, enquiring about each other's health and strategising on opposition unity on the first day of the Bengaluru summit, sources told PTI.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
After sparking a row over his Sanatan Dharma remarks, Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sunday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of 'twisting' his statement and spreading fake news.
Taiwan-based Hon Hai Technology Group, the subsidiary of Foxconn Industrial Internet (Fii), is in talks with the Tamil Nadu government to invest around $200 million to set up an electronic components unit in the state. According to a Reuters report, FII, which makes communication, mobile network and cloud computing equipment, has shared the plan with the Tamil Nadu state officials. Business Standard had reported last week that Fii's chief executive officer (CEO) Brand Cheng met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and Minister for Industries, Investment Promotion and Commerce TRB Rajaa.
The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Patty on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Governor R N Ravi seeking action over what it claimed "benami" links to ruling DMK Ministers, legislators and MPs and "three scams" to the tune of about Rs 5,600 crore.
Is it about how to end the wrestlers' stand-off?
However, Karunanidhi said he was not bothered even about his life and that democracy was important for him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated the Rs 1,260 crore New Integrated Terminal Building (Phase-1) of the Chennai International Airport, a facility that will boost passenger handling.
For the Stalin government to win back the confidence of voters ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, post-flooding restoration works, their speed and efficacy would be closely watched, and not just by the political Opposition, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The BJP is the preferred choice because it offers what the Mughals and later British offered in their time: A stable polity and an environment in which business could function, explains T N Ninan.
Teen chess sensation R Praggnanandhaa's mother, R Nagalakshmi said on Friday she was elated to see her son seal a berth in the Candidates Tournament, adding the 18-year-old has a "long way to go" in the sport.
At least 10 persons were 'reported dead' in a fire that broke out inside a stationary train compartment in Madurai railway station in the wee hours of Saturday, the Southern Railway said, adding a 'gas cylinder illegally' taken in led to the blaze.
Sources said there was no need 'immediately' to look into legal aspects or consider anything else (such as the possibility of political interests over the dismissal and a counter-strategy to frustrate it), as the dismissal was now on hold.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader also said, "This is not the first meeting of opposition leaders nor is it going to be the last. Leaders of different hues have agreed to meet and they will all raise issues that they feel strongly about. There is no problem with that."
The Raj Bhavan has returned a bill banning online rummy to the Tamil Nadu assembly for its reconsideration, official sources said in Chennai on Wednesday.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Glimpses of Pongal being celebrated in Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai on Sunday, January 15, 2023.
The Kerala government has moved the Supreme Court claiming that Governor Arif Mohammed Khan was delaying giving his assent to bills passed by the state assembly, which was "defeating the rights of the people".
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
Stalin still enjoys a lot of sympathy and empathy as someone wishing well for the state, but not full-throated support as in 2019 and 2021, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Vijayakanth was unwell for quite some time and his wife Premalatha took over the reins of the party days ago.
Another meeting convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday with the floor leaders of the INDIA constituents in Parliament will, however, go ahead according to its schedule to formulate the opposition strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Over 260 eminent citizens, including former judges and bureaucrats, have written to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud urging him to take cognisance of DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin's 'eradicate Sanatan Dharma' comment, calling it "hate speech".
The Tamil Nadu chief minister and his family were no doubt overwhelmed by his Bengal counterpart's generosity.
Brazen overstepping of the Constitution by a few Governors recently has sullied the federal structure of our polity, Kharge said in a tweet
The BJP game-plan: Take the top slot, or a close second, either for the 'Lotus' or the larger NDA, if it can and push the AIADMK to the third place, explains N Sathiya Moorthy.
Taiwan's Foxconn signed a letter of intent (LoI) with the Tamil Nadu government on Monday to establish a new mobile component manufacturing facility for Rs 1,600 crore in Kancheepuram with potential to generate 6,000 jobs. On his Twitter handle, Chief Minister M K Stalin said the LoI was signed, in his presence, between the state government and Foxconn Group represented by its chairman Young Liu. State Industries Minister T R B Rajaa, Chief Secretary Shiv Das Meena and senior officials participated.
While there was a brief respite from the incessant downpour on Tuesday, collaborative efforts from the defence, national, and state disaster response forces took the lead in executing rescue and relief operations.