Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam led the strike against the Centre.
Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attended the swearing in ceremony, while former AICC President Sonia Gandhi was absent. Chief Ministers of Congress ruled states Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and Sukhvinder Singh Sukku (Himachal Pradesh) and several top party leaders were also in attendance.
The current question is about the BJP-ruled Centre, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like its predecessors, not arguing the Union of India's case effectively and continuously, whenever the matter came up in the past, if its case still was that Rajiv's killing was an 'act of terror', asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
She had petitioned the court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to press the Governor to take a decision on its September 2018 recommendation for premature release of all the seven convicts serving life term in the case.
With Sundar raking up the issue on Twitter and later emotionally addressing a press conference, the ruling party announced that the platform speaker, Sivaji Krishnamurthy, was being dismissed from the party for indiscipline and bringing disrepute to it.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Thursday urged the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu to adopt a cabinet resolution seeking clemency for the three death row convicts in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination case, as he pressed his demand for the abolition of the death penalty.
Party insiders concede statements of the Raja kind have the potential to hurt the DMK's electoral chances in closely-fought seats in 2024, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Launching a frontal attack against the Congress top brass including Manmohan Singh, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi on Thursday took swipes at him over a book written by his former aide and said the current Lok Sabha polls was all about a "decisive" prime minister.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the government of creating 'a situation' in the court that the murderer of a former prime minister was freed, and asked if the BJP supported this.
Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who holds the portfolio for MP/MLA cases in the state, took up the cases against senior ministers Thangam Thennarasu and his wife and KKSSR Ramachandran and his spouse and also a friend of the DMK leader.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said he was sad that 7 people convicted of killing his father, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, were being released by the Tamil Nadu government.
Though electoral verdicts have historically been accepted, even though grudgingly, by all parties, there has been a sharper edge to the questions being raised by Opposition parties this time over the polling process, including the Election Commission.
He also launched a strident attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was 'globe-trotting', afraid of facing questions over the Manipur violence.
There may be those who could want to go slow, citing the large pendency of follow-up action and court cases that they would have to process and/or proceed with, before raiding more politicians, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Madras high court on Thursday ordered issuing notice to deposed All Indi Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Paneerselvam and his relatives on a criminal revision case initiated on its own, relating to their discharge in a disproportionate wealth case by a trial court in 2012.
As results pour in for the four states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam -- and one Union Territory -- Puducherry - here's a glimpse at the leaders who are trailing and those who are leading.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's decision for early release of Rajiv Gandhi's killers invited a sharp reaction from the Congress, which termed it as "irresponsible, perverse and populist".
Banerjee said her microphone was stopped after five minutes, while other chief ministers were allowed to speak for longer durations.
In the 2009 election, P Chindambaram the Sivaganga seat by a narrow margin. Then the Congress was in alliance with the ruling DMK. This time his son Karti is battling the seat with the alliance. India abstention at the UNHRC on an anti-Lanka resolution will further fuel Tamil anger against the Congress party. This leaves the finance minster sulking and his son facing an uphill political debut, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The 2000-batch IAS officer, who sparked several controversies and was accused of violating the service rule, had taken voluntary retirement from government service on October 23 this year.
In the fifth cabinet reshuffle in seven months since returning to power, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday sacked two ministers and inducted an equal number.
Former chief minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy on Wednesday cautioned the voters against supporting the alliance comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, AINRC and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the coming assembly polls as these parties would have no qualms to merge the Union territory with Tamil Nadu.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa
In nearly 100 seats, the BJP stands almost no chance of winning. In 200 seats, it is a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress where the BJP has an upper hand. In 243 seats, the BJP is pitted against regional parties and it is not going to be easy. That is why 400 seats may end up as a pipe dream, states Ramesh Menon, author of Modi Demystified: The Making of a Prime Minister.
In a Valentine's Day gift to All India Services officers, the government on Tuesday amended rules to mandatorily allow married couples from the IAS and IPS get the same cadre state.
Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah on Saturday invited Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to form the government after she apprised him of her election as leader of All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam Legislature Party.
Kerala on Tuesday said it is ready for joint control with Tamil Nadu and the Centre, if a new dam is built in place of the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar reservoir, over which the two states are locked in a dispute.
According to sources in the Congress, eight legislators are likely to be sworn in as ministers along with them.
Assuming office for the sixth time as chief minister, Jayalalithaa began a new chapter in her chequered political career.
A former BJP Rajya Sabha member Ramaswamy was ailing for some time and was in the hospital.
With Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran coming under the Central Bureau of Investigation's scanner in the 2G scam, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday demanded that he should be dropped from the Union Cabinet immediately.
'For the Tamil Nadu protestors to openly ask popular film actor Vijay Sethupathi not to don Murali in 800 is a travesty in every sense. It may have given them a cause to tell the world, and the governments in New Delhi, Colombo and Chennai, that the Sri Lankan ethnic issue was still alive in the state -- more so, during the current run-up to two major events in the first half of 2021,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Breaking his silence, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Friday denied his son and Union Minister M K Alagiri had offered to resign from the Cabinet. "These are media reports. Let them continue to be media reports. He has not given any letter to me," Karunanidhi told mediapersons in his first comments on the issue.
Leaders of several opposition parties on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court verdict striking down the electoral bonds scheme and termed it an important step in ensuring transparency in electoral funding.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday upped the ante against the Centre's recent policy moves, stating, "The UPA government is unfazed by the sufferings of the common people, small traders and small farmers. The UPA's latest FDI flag is diversionary -- more to anesthetise the mammoth corruption charges against the UPA government especially when elections seem imminent."
Jayalalithaa was the third chief minister in Tamil Nadu to die in office, after her mentor M G Ramachandran (1987) and before that his mentor C N Annadurai (1969). The state government should have evolved protocols for the medical care of the incumbent, and institutional memory should have guided the government and officials in the matter, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Price rise will benefit only a particular company, says Jayalalithaa.
Will Jayalalithaa fill the vacuum created after Nitish Kumar's exit from BJP-led NDA? Why the UPA government's Cabinet reshuffle ended with a whimper... Why the food security bill was stalled at the last moment... All this and more in this week's Dilli Gupshup.
There will be 2,364 counting halls as compared to 1,002 halls in 2016 in 822 assemble constituencies, a more than 200 percent increase, in view of the COVID guidelines, according to the Election Commission which had drawn flak from the courts over the conduct of polls during the pandemic.
