The 65-year-old Stalin's elevation comes about three weeks after the death of his father and party president M Karunanidhi.
The BJP is the clear front-runner, the Congress is set for major introspection and the regional satraps' national aspirations may takes a beating.
A defeat in Assam would be bad news for the Congress which is in power in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur.
An inchoate anger is brewing within the party against the central leadership after the poor show in the assembly polls.
For the first time in seven years the prime minister finds himself at his most vulnerable, observes Virendra Kapoor.
'In India, a really popular and well-entrenched leader is not defeated by a rival.' 'Such a leader has to defeat himself,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP believes that the only party still capable of leading a credible challenge against it is the Congress. Please note how BJP campaigners in states where the Congress may count for a cipher or thereabouts, mostly attack the Congress, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The review plea has been filed by ministers from West Bengal (Moloy Ghatak), Jharkhand (Rameshwar Oraon), Rajasthan (Raghu Sharma), Chhattisgarh (Amarjeet Bhagat), Punjab (B S Sidhu) and Maharashtra (Uday Ravindra Sawant).
The RJD chief also hailed the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh.
Leaders from the Opposition celebrated after the BJP strong man resigned on the floor of the assembly.
For the Congress to be taken seriously, it has to convince those around it that it could actually double its Lok Sabha seat share from the existing 52, and vote-share by a third more from the stagnating 20 per cent in 2014 and 2019, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Why are the protesters still on their own and why are political parties abstaining from joining this mass movement? Aakar Patel explains.
Indrani Roy/Rediff.com explains what strengthened the saffron party's foothold in this eastern region of the country
'Look at the aggressive way in which a campaign against Friday namaz is going on in North Indian cities.' 'Even the Union home minister is part of this vicious campaign.'
Elections 2024 is not as open and shut as has been presumed. There is some life left in it, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Netaji Bose followed the concept of Bharatiya and he united all religions and communities of India as Bharatiya.' 'I follow that politics of Netaji and so does the BJP.'
'Vajpayee was predictable in his ways.' 'Modi is a schemer, possessed of a shrewdness that can be rewarding in the chaotic world of politics.' 'His political journey gives reason to believe that 2019 will be another milestone in his private project,' notes Vikram Johri.
What the Congress will have to understand is that it is not enough to have a 40-something vice-president in New Delhi, but young faces with fresh ideas in the states,' says Amulya Ganguli.
The note ban is Modi's make-or-break gambit for 2019. Opposition leaders see a vulnerability and won't gift pre-eminence to the Congress, says Shekhar Gupta.
Some of the key proposals of the agenda relate to transforming the banking sector, addressing agrarian distress, countering hate crimes and discrimination, and spurring employment generation.
A section within the RSS feels Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani should be projected as the BJP's CM candidate in UP, says Rajeev Sharma.
Kishor, who has been vocal about his opposition to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), said Kumar needs to spell out whether he is with the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi or those who support Nathu Ram Godse.
What these elections prove beyond any doubt (if ever there was one) that Modi's hold over public mind and Shah's mastery of election management are unparalleled. It doesn't seem likely that they will be matched any time soon in the Indian political scene, reaffirms Shreekant Sambrani.
President Ram Nath Kovind said he was 'a determined champion of democracy during the Emergency' and would be missed by his readers.
The new Congress president is building a core team of youngsters while waiting for his mother's coterie to retire, reports R Rajagopalan.
Assembly elections are due in the summer of 2016 in five places: Assam, West Bengal in the east and Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry in the south
Not all Opposition parties on board, say they are once bitten, twice shy.
'It disappoints and saddens me no end that Mahua has allowed herself to be carried away by the Goebbelsian onslaught mounted on the BJP and Narendra Modi by certain vested interests which find themselves exposed and thrown out of the gravy train,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Imran Khan will always be first and foremost the enigmatic 'Kaptaan', who pulled off the impossible -- transform an immensely talented but fractious bunch of cricketers into world beaters.
President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and other top leaders paid rich tributes to senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who died on Saturday.
The government's top leadership was happy with Prabhu's Budget.
With the ignominy of a duck in Delhi, the free-fall in Congress' fortunes under Rahul Gandhi continued unabated with possibly grim forebodings for the grand old party.
All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad said the party would not react immediately and would come out with a detailed reaction in Lucknow on Sunday.
"I am sure that the attempts to stall development and throttle democracy at gunpoint will not be successful ever," the home minister said at the meeting, being held two weeks after 25 paramilitary personnel were killed by a band of Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
After Bihar elections, Rahul Gandhi's go-it-alone strategy seems to have taken a back seat.
Greetings from all quarters, including his political rivals, poured in on Monday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who celebrated his 68th birthday in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi.
'If the Amendment Bill 2016 becomes law, the indigenous people of Assam will become a minority and the language, literature and culture of Assam will be lost.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's offer of central assistance in arresting the downward slide in West Bengal and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's ongoing trip to the state and his asking for Mamata's cooperation in handling the situation and in dissolving the anti-national and inter-country network of jihad that has now chosen her state as one of its base, is perhaps Mamata's last best chance to salvage the situation, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
'In Kejriwal's re-election, we are finally seeing someone who has successfully bridged his Hindu identity with ground-level development triumphing over the BJP,' notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
