Tamil nadu Chief Minister and All India Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa on Monday sacked three ministers and six district heads in the backdrop of her party's defeat in three Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
A G Perarivalan alias Arivu is now a free man following a legal battle, and that long fight provides scope for throwback moments of Tamil sentiment that propelled the struggle which was backed by most political parties and successive governments in Tamil Nadu.
Here's the full phase-wise list of polling dates in all states and Union Territories.
Several parties had requested that the session, which was originally scheduled to continue till April 8, be curtailed due to the five assembly elections being held in eight phases till April 29.
Counting of votes for the high stakes assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry began on Thursday morning with trends expected to be available by 11am.
Arora also said he is confident that the EC will be able to hold the next set of assembly polls on time and the internal exercise for those is already underway.
'Whether the people will benefit or not depends on what the central government does in Kashmir successfully.'
During his whirlwind election tour in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also the United Progressive Alliance's chief interlocutor, tells Saubhadra Chatterji the government has its own way of moving against corruption:
The work on seat sharing with other allies will begin from Thursday, he told reporters.
The Congress leader threatened to give a "fitting lesson" in the ensuing elections. "People are watching the excesses of this government," he said.
'Both the AIADMK and DMK are promising prohibition, but where is the road map? Jayalalithaa is not giving a blueprint for her phased prohibition and Karunanidhi is not talking about a draft bill for the same. This is nothing but empty election rhetoric.'
Actor-turned-politician and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee has been fielded from Chunchura and another MP Nishit Parmanik from Dinhata. Also, a number of film personalities have been nominated as candidates in the high-stakes battle for West Bengal.
Opposition leaders believe this entire plan has been put in place to ensure that Mamata Banerjee is kept out of office in West Bengal.
Karnataka dished out a clinical show as they beat Andhra Pradesh by 53 runs in their Elite Group A match of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, in Bengaluru, on Monday.
Gandhi reportedly told them that he has already conveyed his decision to the Congress Working Committee and would not relent.
'Kerala voters vote from their mind rather than their heart.'
A six-phased Assembly elections in West Bengal, a two stage poll in Assam and a single day poll in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry were announced by the Election Commission, setting in motion the largest such exercise after 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress on Monday deferred the election to the post of party president till the COVID-19 situation improves and decided to set up a group to assess losses in the recent assembly polls, with party chief Sonia Gandhi saying it has to put its house in order by facing reality and drawing lessons from the 'serious setbacks'.
The Congress MP from Sivaganga also slammed the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance and said the people of Tamil Nadu do not want a government which has any "stain, scent or shadow" of the BJP as its 'Hindi-Hindutva' agenda "irritates" them.
A round-up of the first day's play in the Ranji Trophy matches across the country, on Tuesday.
As the second phase of polling commenced on Thursday amid heightened security, bigwigs came out to cast their votes for constituting the 17th Lok Sabha. Among those who took to their respective polling booths were former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth, BJP candidate from Bengaluru South Tejasvi Surya, and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others.
As per the preliminary estimates, the BJP has significantly improved its national vote share from 31.34 per cent in 2014 to a new record high, while there appeared to be only a marginal change in case of the Congress from its 19.5 per cent score of the last elections.
Petrol price on Friday crossed the Rs 100- per-litre mark in Chennai as well as in some places in Punjab and Kerala after fuel prices were hiked yet again. Petrol is priced at over Rs 99 a litre in Delhi and Kolkata -- the only metro cities which haven't seen the Rs 100 mark yet. Petrol price was hiked by 35 paise per litre on Friday but there was no change in diesel rates, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.
A memorandum, signed by the chief ministers or finance ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Karnataka, Delhi, West Bengal, Kerala and Punjab, said the terms were disruptive and a cause for concern.
Bedi's counter attack put the Congress-headed government on defensive.
'Modi-Shah have understood the risks their cynical mixing of domestic political motivations with strategic national interests was soon going to become counterproductive asserts Shekhar Gupta.
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Thursday.
CEC Sunil Arora will meet former heads of Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on Friday to discuss ways to keep a check on black money disbursements in South India, especially Tamil Nadu.
So how has the map of India altered over the last years?
Anti-nuclear power activist S P Udayakumar will be the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Kanyakumari.
Anti-nuclear power activist S P Udayakumar will be the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from Kanyakumari.
The Grand Old Party must bring widespread reforms across all levels of the organisation to show it is no longer in a state of inertia and to present itself as a viable political alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress veteran Kapil Sibal said.
Apart from Kerala, in no state did the Grand Old Party scored in double digits.
The BJP top leader's Tamil pitch assumes significance Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had some days back alleged that the saffron party had no respect for Tamil language and culture.
"We will introspect into the reasons for our loss and will rededicate ourselves to the service of the people with greater vigour", Gandhi said in a statement.
'It doesn't take much time for people's perception to change about a person.' 'People come and go based on people's will.' 'Nobody should forget that.'
The union territory of Puducherry has the dubious distinction of having the laziest legislators in India. A report shows that in comparison to the other four poll-bound states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam -- the legislative assembly in Puducherry had the lowest number of sittings in the past 5 years.
The Congress has virtually blamed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the drubbing in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry assembly elections. "The results in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were affected by the 2G scam and these states were lost to other parties," the editorial in the latest issue of 'Congress Sandesh' said. Congress was part of the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. The issue has come at a time when DMK chief M Karunanidhi is holding an emergency meeting.
Describing the virus as "dhoort" and "bahurupia" in Hindi, Modi in an interaction with district magistrates and field officials also underlined concerns expressed in various quarters about the threats it poses to the youth and children.
Munaf Patel joins Kandy Tuskers in LPL; Sarfaraz pulls out, Malinga unsure
