Elections are due in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal that year. Early indications show Bengal holds promise for the BJP, but the party may have to recast itself to win Tamil Nadu.
Dinakaran had alleged on Friday that Panneerselvam met him in July last year and wanted to meet him again in September-end this year in a bid to "oust" Chief Minister M Palaniswami. He also claimed that Panneerselvam offered to make him the chief minister.
Amid opposition to the Indian Premier League matches matches in Chennai in view of raging protests over the Cauvery issue, Tamil film star Rajinikanth said it would be good if the Twenty20 league's organisers stopped the games in the city as such a gala event would be embarrassing when entire Tamil Nadu was agitating.
'The BJP wants an AIADMK government so that they can implement their policies.' 'All the policies implemented in UP are being implemented in Tamil Nadu.'
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.
'OPS did not back off.' 'He wanted transparency and he got it.'
Sasikala's declaration of staying away from politics does not necessarily have to mean that she was retiring for good. She is only taking time to evaluate the post-poll chances of hers before digging in again, if possible, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Sasikala left Chennai on Thursday morning by a car which had to halt at several locations till it reached the Bengaluru highway as party cadres gathered to greet her.
The AIADMK leader had sought parole for 15 days, but she has been granted for five days.
'There will be significant political traction for him. But how much, we don't know yet'
A tweet by O Panneerselvam, leader of the Puratchi Thalaivi faction of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, on a possible alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party after the declaration of civic polls kicked up a storm on Saturday.
Four police personnel -- a woman joint commissioner, two women constables and a sub-inspector -- were injured in stone-pelting, the police said, even as reports emerged that some protesters were also hurt.
The ED had filed six cases in the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Economic Offences Court-I) which had discharged the duo in two cases in 2015 and directed them to face the trial in other cases.
Dinakaran's chartered accountant will be called by the crime branch for questioning in the matter.
AIADMK-Amma led by Palaniswami accused the O Panneerselvam faction of "refusing" to come for talks.
The police sought two-day custody of alleged hawala operator Nathu Singh, who was arrested on Friday night.
Key Dinakaran aide and legislator P Vetrivel said they would meet the governor at 10 am on Tuesday.
The SC said if the high court does not dispose of the pending case regarding allocation of symbol within four weeks then the EC may proceed as per the March 9, 2018 order.
Without strategising together, Jayalalithaa's successor, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, and M Karunanidhi's son-cum-successor, M K Stalin, have used tough-talking on seat-sharing with allies, to replace charisma that they purportedly lacked, during the run-up to the assembly polls scheduled for April 6, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The chief government whip on Thursday sought their disqualification for alleged anti-party activities.
The young woman's death has led to an outrage on illegal hoardings being put by political parties despite them causing inconvenience and posing a threat to people's safety.
From Chief Minister EK Palaniswami to Seeman to TTV Dhinakaran to elder brother M K Azhagiri, everyone's favourite target these days seems to the DMK chief Stalin, which is good news in an election year, but that doesn't mean he is going to sweep the polls, 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.
The DMK chief said it was a 'resounding victory' given to his party led alliance by the people of Tamil Nadu.
Should the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu not make the required five out of 22 by-election seats, or even otherwise, the temptation to poach, especially from the Congress or starting with the Congress may be high on Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisami's agenda, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Chief Minister Palaniswami camp, however, blamed the Sasikala family for the raids.
After Shah said Hindi is the most spoken language which can unite the nation as a common language, Tamil Nadu parties rallied against it.
Pon Radhakrishnan is also a Union minister of state. His opponent is the richest candidate in Tamil Nadu.
Elections will also be held in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha.
SC keeps in abeyance a Delhi high court order on allotment of symbol.
Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are centred on chief ministerial candidates of rival parties. When Sasikala cannot contest even a panchayat election for six years after her release, even if she were to have sympathetic backers even among apolitical voters, she does not have any 'transferrable vote-bank' even otherwise for a chief minister candidate of her choice, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
At 70, going by hospital records made public, most age and health-related arguments put out against super-star Rajinikanth's entry into politics, before he withdrew citing a 2016 kidney-transplant, hold good for Sasikala, too, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dinakaran said the value of his movable and immovable assets stood at Rs 74,17,807 -- immovable assets worth Rs 57.44 lakh and movable assets worth were Rs 16.73 lakh.
Despite drawing a blank in Tamil Nadu, its leaders in the state claimed they should strike roots without using a crutch at this "most opportune" time, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'The prime minister's advisers might have told him that going along with this AIADMK government will damage his image.'
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Sasikala faction on Thursday said the presence of two leaves symbol, frozen by the Election Commission ahead of the April 12 RK Nagar assembly byelection, on its website was 'unnoticed' and would be removed.
What happens when two former ministers go up against each other? No sparks fly, reports A Ganesh Nadar from the Arakkonam Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu, but it is the summer heat that has the last word on the campaign.
The ruling faction's announcement came two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up Palaniswami to seek his party's support.
A day after the Special Court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him, T T V Dinakaran, one of the accused in the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case filed against Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa and others, on Wednesday surrendered.
The warrant was issued following Dinakaran's failure to appear before the court in compliance with the July 2 summons.
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