The stage is set for the battle of ballots in the biennial election to fill up six Rajya Sabha vacancies in Tamil Nadu on Thurssday, an event that will see voting after a 17-year gap.
If purists are surprised as to why and how people are not demanding prohibition or not talking about past promises, both in the election manifestos five years back and even those made to the courts, the answer lies in how the state has been evolving and changing these past few years, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The sops sanctioned by J Jayalalithaa on her first day in office could cost the exchequer up to Rs 8,000 crore annually.
The Election Commission has extended the schedule for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in several states and Union Territories following concerns raised by opposition parties.
The Election Commission has cancelled polls to two Tamil Nadu assembly seats, saying money power has vitiated electoral process.
A newly formed 'apolitical' organisation of youths in Tamil Nadu -- NaMo Peravai (NaMo Movement) -- has planned to name 200 tea stalls in the state after the Gujarat chief minister.
'There is no doubt about the antiquity of Tamil Nadu.'
The harvest festival of Pongal was celebrated across Tamil Nadu on Friday, though the festivity was low key in southern districts, including Madurai, following the Supreme Court ban on the bull taming sport of Jallikattu.
'It makes law-making on the part of the state governments much more difficult and throws up bottlenecks as governors are not acting on bills.'
Over 10.56 lakh voters have been deleted from Assam's electoral rolls following a Special Revision, ahead of upcoming assembly elections. The revision included house-to-house verification and aims to create an error-free electoral roll.
There's a lot of OTT entertainment in store this February. Joginder Tuteja lists the interesting line-up of movies and series coming up.
If the TVK joins the NDA, there is every likelihood of the AIADMK winning an absolute majority in the 234 seat assembly and wanting to form a stand-alone government. In turn, it could mean that the BJP especially and the TVK equally so, will want to restrict the AIADMK's seat share closer to the cut-off figure, if only to ensure that EPS won't get the absolute majority that he desires (if the NDA won, that is) and will have to settle for a coalition government, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
"Have you obtained the permission of the Supreme Court (which had upheld the NEET). Would it not amount to violation of the ruling of the apex court?" were among the questions raised by the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy.
I once asked him why he hadn't written scripts for his sons Vineeth and Dhyan. 'I made some suggestions about their scripts, and they haven't discussed their scripts with me after that,' he said with his trademark laugh.
The Rajya Sabha MP said the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test has prevented access to medical education for so many children and the strength to change that rule of exam could emerge only from education.
"He followed the path of spirituality in his political journey also, that was his greatness," added Radhakrishnan.
After big win in Bihar, the BJP is likely to push harder in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK government and the uneasy BJP-AIADMK alliance are preparing for a tense election filled with seat-sharing fights, changing alliances, and the unpredictable entry of Vijay's TVK party, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Vijay said the truth about the fatal incident will come out soon, and hinted he was ready to face action.
'Women in crime can turn on and off emotions like a tap.' 'Something that comes in the way of their goals can be eliminated without a second thought.'
The TVK has sought an independent investigation under the supervision of the Supreme Court, contending that a fair and impartial probe would not be possible if conducted solely by officers of the Tamil Nadu Police.
Chennai Police received a phone call claiming that a bomb had been planted at the ECR, Neelankarai residence of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) Chief and actor C Joseph Vijay, officials said.
An SIT investigating the Sabarimala gold loss case has questioned former Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran. The interrogation has sparked political controversy, with opposition parties alleging interference in the investigation.
The BJP's MoSha leadership are past masters in encouraging defections from their allies if it helped their party capture the chief minister's chair. In Bihar, they are not sure if JD-U MPs and MLAs would be willing to cross over to the BJP if the Nitish leadership came on top -- and the NDA crossed the halfway mark together, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's biggest challenge will be to find a new growth driver, particularly against the backdrop of a global economy ravaged by heightened uncertainty and fragmentation, financial markets on a precipice, and global commodity prices on a continued uptrend.
'I suspect that Bangladesh being given permission stuck in India's official craw, and this story was an attempt to balance the scales by giving the impression that a similar waiver had been given to India as well.'
The opposition INDIA bloc leaders are expected to discuss their joint candidate for the post of vice-president at a meeting of floor leaders on Monday morning.
What we are watching is something different: A fog manufactured and maintained by the people who started the war, so that the question of why it was started never has to be answered, observes Prem Panicker in his must read blog on the war in the Middle East.
Maharashtra heads to the polls for 29 municipal corporations, with Mumbai's BMC election taking center stage as the BJP-led Mahayuti faces off against the Thackeray front. Key issues include promises for women, pollution control, and the city's financial health.
A social media post by a TVK leader has sparked controversy, leading to demands for his expulsion from the party.
8 Member of Parliaments were suspended from Lok Sabha for tearing & throwing papers at the Chair till April 2. Uproar started when Rahul Gandhi was barred from citing former Army Chief, General M M Naravane's memoir on 2020 India-China clash. Rediff.com brings you the details of these MPs who were suspended.
The Madurai Bench of the high court will on Friday hear the case related to the Karur stampede incident, which claimed the lives of at least 41 people and over 100 were injured.
In Tamil Nadu, the alternative to one Dravidian party has been another, and for one actor-politician CM, there is another. Their initial popularity may owe to their filmi charisma, but their continued acceptance owed to their government's policies and programmes targeting the poor and the needy in the state, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a one-horse race, ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam led by Jayalalithaa on Friday inflicted a crushing defeat on its arch-rival DMK, Congress and BJP-led six-party alliance, winning 4 seats and establishing unassailable leads in 33 out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu.
India has managed high government debt-to-GDP, a slowing domestic revenue engine, lower household savings and a more hostile geopolitical environment separately in the past. But together, they threaten to undo the growth narrative on which today's optimism rests, warns Debashis Basu.
Vijay, who spoke on the fishermen issues in nearby Nagapattinam, sported a green headgear and addressed farmers' grievances and sought an answer from CM Stalin.
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's Chief Minister for a record 10th time, extending his tenure and joining the list of longest-serving CMs in India.
'There is a degree of civility, efficiency, cleanliness and cultural ease here that has all but vanished in the squalid, chaotic and rootless Hindi heartland,' says Sunil Sethi.
The last time Tamil Nadu seriously voted on pre-poll promises was in faraway 1967.
Nitin Nabin, a five-time Bihar MLA, has been elected unopposed as the BJP national president, becoming the youngest person to hold the position. His appointment signals a generational shift in the party's leadership as it prepares for key state elections.
'He knows people in a small town like Karur would give anything for a glimpse of the superstar.'
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