In an apparent bid to stem any further erosion in his party against the backdrop of four of his members of Legislative Assembly meeting Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, actor-politician and Opposition Leader Vijayakant on Monday sought a meeting with her to discuss constituency-related issues.
Ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Member of Legsilative Assembly P Dhanapal on Wednesday became the first Dalit Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and said he would strive to uphold the ethos of the House. Party supremo and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa led the assembly in greeting the 61 year-old Dhanapal, who was elected unopposed.
Paying tribute to Tamil Nadu's former chief minister J Jayalalithaa on her birth anniversary, expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader VK Sasikala said that they (the AIADMK and the Amma Makkal Munnetra Katchi) should contest elections together.
Two Opposition Dravida Munettra Kazhagam members of Legislative Assembly were evicted from Tamil Nadu Assembly following a heated exchange of words with rival All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam legislators.
Around 75 per cent polling was registered in the byelection to Tamil Nadu Assembly from Sankarankovil (SC) constituency on Sunday and the exercise was 'by and large peaceful', Election officials said.
In an unusual action, Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu assembly Vijaykanth was on Thursday suspended for 10 days for breach of privilege during a heated exchange with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
The extensive floral arrangements on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Assembly said it all. The Jayalalithaa government in the state had turned one and it was time to celebrate.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of tax cuts on petroleum products, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday said people were aware of the fact behind the issue and pointed out at his government effecting a Rs 3 a litre cut on petrol earlier.
'He is a key fulcrum point in the pan-Indian creation of an effective Opposition to the BJP.'
Besides Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who won from his native Tiruvarur by a huge margin of over 50,000 votes, other ministers who saved the embarrassment to DMK are his son M K Stalin (Kolathur), Durai Murugan (Katpadi), I Periyasamy (Athoor) E V Velu (Tiruvannamalai), Thangam Thennarasu (Tiruchuli), T P M Mohideen Khan (Palayamkottai) Suba Thangavelan (Tiruvadanai) and K Ramachandran (Coonoor).
Jayanthi Thangabalu, wife of Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress Committee chief K V Thangblu, and former Union minister S Thirunavukarasu figure in the list of Congress candidates for 60 seats annnounced by the party on Wednesday for Tamil Nadu assembly elections. Other key names include All India Congress Committee secretary K Jayakkumar and senior party leaders Peter Alphanse and S Ganesan.
A one-day special assembly session convened in the midst of the heightened tensions between the two states on the dam issue passed the resolution reasserting the state's right over the 116-year old dam which Kerala wants to be demolished to build a new one on safety concernsA resolution moved by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that 'Tamil Nadu cannot lose its rights over false propaganda by Kerala' on the safety of the century-old reservoir.
What will be the effect of Jayalalithaa first salvo against Rajapaksa? How will it impact India's Sri Lanka policy? These are some of the questions likely to be debated more frequently in the coming months.
A host of political leaders and the cream of Tamil film world were among those who turned up for the wedding reception of Union Minister M K Alagiri's son Durai Dayanidhi on Wednesday at the sprawling Tamukkam grounds in Madurai, which was converted into an excellently decorated wedding hall.
In a resolution adopted in the assembly, the Jayalalithaa government sought diplomatic efforts by India to change any possible pro-Lanka stand adopted by America in the United Nation rights body.
A war of words erupted between the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the DMDK over a hike in bus fares and milk prices last year, which soon turned into a one-on-one clash between Jayalalithaa and Vijayakanth with members on either side up on their feet, causing noisy scenes.
Nalini, the life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, on Saturday met her husband and a death row convict in the same case, Murugan, at the Vellore prison, jail sources said.
Admitting that incidents of money distribution were occurring despite its strong measures for Wednesday's Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, the Election Commission warned for the second day that it may postpone elections in areas where the malpractice takes place.
Fishermen in Ramanathapuram often face the problem of being "harassed" by their Sri Lankan counterparts and naval personnel of that country, while fishing in the Palk Straits.
Dismissing the Opposition charge that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was "weak", Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has asserted he was "very much alert and proactive" to all issues including corruption.
Undeterred by the controversy surrounding its seat sharing talks with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the Congress has begun moves for an 'honourable alliance' with the Trinamool Congress in poll-bound West Bengal.
DMDK founder-president Vijayakant along with party presidium chairman Panruti Ramachandran and Youth wing secretary Sudheesh called on Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai on Friday night to cement the pact under which the party had been allotted 41 seats, a joint statement released to the media said.
Bettering the promise of monthly payouts to homemakers by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the DMK, Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam on Friday assured Rs 3,000 "value rights assistance" to them in its manifesto for the April 6 assembly polls, but maintained it was not a dole.
Pattali Makkal Katchi founder Dr S Ramadoss attributed the failure of the party in the April 13 Tamil Nadu assembly elections to the 'arrogance and lethargy' of the party workers.
Karuppasamy is the second mnister in the Jayalalithaa-led cabinet to die while in office. Another minister Mariam Pichai was killed in a road accident soon after the April 13 polls, even before he could take oath as a Member of the Tamil Nadu assembly.
In a candid admission four months after his party's rout in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Friday said internal differences and the activities of some party men resulted in the "very huge defeat."
Whether it is clemency for Rajiv Gandhi killers or Afzal guru or Bhullar; the motive behind this 'clemency' is same -- vote bank politics. The punishment whether life term, death sentence etc needs to be carried out, says Varad Varenya.
Re-polling would be held in eight polling stations spread across six constituencies in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar said.The re-polls were necessitated due to defective display of Electoral Voting Machines, damage of EVMs by unruly elements and also boycott of voters in one place protesting shifting of polling station among other reasons, he told mediapersons.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa has declared assets valued at Rs 51 crore, both movable and immovable, in her election affidavit.
Weeks ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, V K Sasikala, expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and close aide of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, on Wednesday announced that "she will stay away from politics," but would pray for the "golden rule" of the late party supremo.
The Srirangam assembly seat, a traditional stronghold of the AIADMK that has elected the party nominees six times since 1977, is witnessing an interesting contest between Jayalalithaa, a two-time chief minister, and a political novice N Anand, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam nominee.
The Bharatiya Janata Party lashed out at the Central Bureau of Investigation for procrastinating the filing of the chargesheet in the 2G spectrum scam. Leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior leader Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley alleged that the chargesheet in the 2G spectrum case had left out "core issues" without significantly dealing with loss to the exchequer and alleged that the timetable of investigation was influenced by the TN polls.
Palaniswami is the third AIADMK leader to be sworn-in as the chief minister in the last nine months.
The 2G spectrum scam involving DMK leader A Raja will have an impact on the party's prospects in the forthcoming Tamil Nadu assembly election, feels DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan.
The deadlock over seat sharing between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Congress for the Tamil Nadu polls came to an end on Tuesday.
The DMK and PMK on Friday clinched an alliance for the coming Tamil Nadu assembly polls, under which the ruling party's junior partner has been allotted 31 assembly seats. The deal was finalised at a meeting between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss in Chennai. Karunanidhi, announcing the accord at the end of the nearly 90-minute meeting with his former ally, said the two parties had decided to fight the elections jointly.
Capitalising on the boycott by main opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Democratic Progressive Alliance on Friday expectedly swept the by-polls to five Tamil Nadu assembly seats, trouncing actor-politician Vijaykant's Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam by impressive margins.
Ending its decade long stint in the opposition, even relegated to the third spot in the House in 2011, the M K Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam made a spirited comeback to the ruling saddle to unseat its rival the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The setback promises to have far-reaching ramifications within and outside the party as it is likely to fuel voices that have challenged the Gandhi family's leadership and also those who have been a votary of a non-Congress front to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The DMK-Congress potboiler has so many layers to it that it makes Inception look like a linear nursery rhyme.