The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Monday issued an order terming the 10.5 per cent internal reservation for the Vanniyars community in Tamil Nadu as 'unconstitutional.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the 10.5 per cent reservation provided to Vanniyars, a Most Backward Community (MBC) in Tamil Nadu, in government jobs and admission to educational institutions.
The Madras high court on Wednesday declined to grant a total stay against the 10.5 per cent Vanniyar quota but held that admission in higher educational institutions and appointment in government services will be subject to the outcome of the batch of petitions challenging the same.
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Dr S Ramadoss has announced taking up the complete reins of the party, relegating his president son Anbumani to the role of working president. The move, announced ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Chennai, comes in anticipation of the 2026 Assembly election.
'It will split people and create caste clashes. Unity of people will be affected for the time being.'
The sub-quota scheme may now lead to a ganging up of non-Vanniyars in individual constituencies against the Vanniyars just as in the past, such ganging up against SC-ST candidates was seen in the non-quota constituencies, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Friday passed a bill providing internal reservation of 10.5 per cent for Vanniyars, a most backward community in government jobs and in admission to educational institutions.
A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai said it has perused the judgments submitted and was of the view that the issue does not need consideration by a larger bench.
Over the last five days, Modi visited all of south, held roadshows, made an aggressive bid for his party, and took on the rivals with full gusto, especially the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana that was in power for 10 years.
In a state that usually plumbs for a Dravidian major, three candidates have a chance of delivering for the BJP, observes A Ganesh Nadar.
According to insiders, their lack of enthusiasm is showing on the ground. There is nothing to suggest that their enthusiasm will return in the final four phases of polling, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
A district collector leads Dalits into a temple in Tamil Nadu, which is then sealed. A Ganesh Nadar finds out why.
Tamil Nadu is the celebrated home of the 'social justice' movement in the country, yet caste differences and violence has only been increasing in numbers and becoming more brutal in recent years, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The BJP will be the ruling party.'
The court rejected all petitions, including that against the conduct of the party's General Secretary election.
What will a split in the AIADMK mean for Tamil Nadu?
'The main reason is 'they' do not want to see Dalits especially in the morning!'
'When one joins an office most of the initial conversations would always be efforts to identify the new entrant's caste.' 'Once one says that one is a bachelor still, the next thing they would say will be: "We know an educated girl from among our acquaintances, what caste do you belong to?' 'If it is education that is being discussed, they would definitely ask, "Under which quota do you come?",' recalls P Rajeskannan.
By aligning with the BJP, even if they were arm-twisted into doing so, the AIADMK leadership has yielded their political space in the state to the aunt-nephew duo of Sasikala-Dinakaran, and the parliamentary election to the DMK-Congress combine, says A Ganesh Nadar.
The PMK may join the Jayalalitha led front for the forthcoming elections, after the DMK snapped ties with them.
Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Monday charged the Delhi media with bias against him as he was from the ranks of most backward classes.
'The BJP has become a reasonably larger force in Tamil Nadu in the last two years.'
If not for Palaniswami, it is hard to guess if the AIADMK would have been able to garner 33.3 per cent vote share as against the DMK's 37.7 per cent. AIADMK won 66 seats, its allies Pattali Makkal Katchi and Bharatiya Janata Party five and four seats respectively and proved yet again that the western region was its fortress.
'Why don't they suggest artificial intelligence training for SC/STs?' 'Why can't they be trained in computer programming?'
Former Union minister and Paattali Makkal Katchi candidate for Dharmapuri Lok Sabha constituency Anbumani Ramadoss was on Saturday booked for allegedly attempting to incite people on caste lines, officials said.
'Most of those involved in these honour killings are the people who belong to the class that feels left out.' 'The high development index in a way is perpetuating conditions that result in social tension.' 'The only solution to the problem is politicise inter-caste marriages.'
'Your strike rate is very important when it comes to seat-sharing.'
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
The announcement was made by AIADMK coordinator and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and Union Minister and senior BJP leader Piyush Goyal, party election in-charge for Tamil Nadu, who described it as a "mega alliance".
Sasikala may be set to take over the reins of Tamil Nadu, yet she faces a period of immense turbulence.
The never-before performance, a clean sweep by the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa-headed party coming on a day when she completed three years in office, decimated her opponents, particularly arch-rival DMK, and put her in the driver's seat for the assembly polls due exactly two years from now
The single-phase polling for 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu on Thursday will test the capabilities of ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, its rival, the Dravidra Munnetra Kazhagam and the Bharatiya Janata Party, who hopes to ride on the Modi wave after drawing a blank in the previous two polls.
R Rajagopalan, who travelled through Tamil Nadu, says it will be an election of many firsts.
Even though V K Sasikala's relatives may be calling the shots within the AIADMK and the Tamil Nadu government now, the 'Mannargudi clan' doesn't have a future in state politics, reports R Rajagopalan.
One year later, Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar travels to Ilavarasan's village, and finds out that cast culture still prevails at its worst in Tamil Nadu
Former Union Minister and the Congress candidate for the Mayiladuthurai Lok Sabha seat, Mani Shankar Aiyar strongly believes that the good work done by him as an MP for the constituency over the past two decades will fetch him a comfortable victory in the upcoming polls.
With the presidential elections over, the time has come for Prime Minister Modi to show Tamil Nadu that the state's interests are safe under him, says R Rajagopalan.
If you thought you knew all about sloganeering, maybe you should take a trip to Tamil Nadu. Politicians in the southern Indian state have perfected the art of using catchy idioms and phrases to capture the public imagination, says David Gabri
The threat to Sasikala won't come from the Tamil Nadu chief minister or New Delhi, but from her 20-plus kin, reports R Rajagopalan.
Modi's NDA is good enough to give a psychological boost to the once 'untouchable' BJP and Modi but if the NDA doesn't get a majority on its own, then walking the last mile will be the greatest challenge of this election for Modi, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
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