by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
V.K. Sasikala and T.T.V. Dinakaran
Chennai : Income Tax (IT) officials on Thursday raided 187 locations belonging to relatives of jailed AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, her nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran and organisations connected to them in several cities, said a senior IT official.
He said the search is in connection with unexplained routing of cash post-demonetisation through shell companies connected with them.
Ten groups of IT officials were involved in “the search exercise taking place across Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and other places”, an IT official told IANS preferring anonymity.
The raids began at 6 a.m. The tax officials also searched the residence of M. Natarajan, husband of Sasikala in Thanjavur, according to reports.
They also raided the Kodanad Tea Estate belonging to late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
The official said the IT department will look at routing of funds within India and there are other agencies to look at routing of funds outside India.
The IT officials are also searching the AIADMK Tamil daily Namadhu MGR.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Chennai : The Chief Whip of the ruling AIADMK on Thursday urged Tamil Nadu Speaker P. Dhanapal to disqualify the 19 MLAs who have rebelled against Chief Minister K. Palaniswami.
The 19 are part of the faction led by the now jailed AIADMK General Secretary V.K. Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran.
Upset over the coming together of the two major factions of the AIADMK led by Palaniswami and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, the 19 legislators have submitted a memorandum to Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao withdrawing their support to the Chief Minister.
Speaking to the media here, Chief Whip S. Rajendran said that by withdrawing support to the Chief Minister, the dissenting MLAs had attracted the provision of the anti-defection law.
The Dinakaran faction, whose MLAs are now holed up in Puducherry, reacted sharply. A spokesman for the group said this was aimed at preventing more legislators from joining them.
The move comes as the opposition parties have been demanding the Chief Minister to prove his majority in the assembly.
The AIADMK had 134 members in the Assembly (excluding the Speaker) and this has fallen to 115 without the support of the Dinakaran faction.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly has 234 seats. One seat is vacant due to the death of AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa.
Of the 233 members, the DMK has 89 members, the Congress 8 and the IUML 1. Speaker P. Dhanapal has only a casting vote in a tie. The DMK, Congress and IUML are in an alliance.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Chennai, (IANS) AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa, 68, was on Monday sworn in for the sixth time as the Tamil Nadu chief minister in a packed hall in Madras University as thousands lined up on the roads outside.
She was administered oath of office and secrecy by Governor K. Rosaiah. Jayalalithaa will head a 29-member ministry in the 15th Tamil Nadu assembly.
She was sworn in as chief minister for the sixth time in her political career.
Jayalalithaa later went to the Secretariat here to sign some papers.
Rosaiah also administered oath of office to her council of ministers, days after the AIADMK-led alliance won the May 16 assembly election which saw a multi-cornered contest.
Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu, Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin, industrialists and other personalities attended the swearing in ceremony.
A large number of people gathered at the venue. People lined up along both sides of the road from Jayalalithaa’s residence at Poes Garden through the stretch from Kamaraj Salai on the Marina up to Madras University campus.
The AIADMK-led front won 134 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly. AIADMK party cadres distributed sweets and cakes to celebrate the occasion.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi, (IANS) West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK were set to retain power on Thursday as the BJP was on the road to victory in Assam and the Left made a comeback in Kerala.
On expected lines, the Trinamool was sweeping all across West Bengal as officials counted the millions of votes polled in the staggered assembly elections. Its candidates led in 199 of the 289 places where trends were available two hours after the vote count began at 8 a.m.
The Left and the Congress were at a distant second spot, leading in 37 and 41 constituencies respectively. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading in 12 places. The West Bengal legislature has 294 members.
In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK proved exit polls wrong as it appeared on the course to retaining power. Its candidates led in 132 constituencies, with the DMK-Congress alliance in the lead in 69.
The PMK was ahead in four places. The Tamil Nadu assembly has 234 seats.
As an AIADMK win appeared certain, boisterous celebrations erupted outside the residence of party leader and Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in Chennai.
Unlike in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, the governments were set to change in Assam and Kerala.
The BJP was on the road to victory in Assam for the first time. Its alliance candidates led in 65 constituencies, followed by the Congress in 28 seats. The AIUDF led in 17 places.
Assam has a 126-member legislature.
As widely expected, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was set to dethrone the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).
LDF candidates led in 85 seats and those of the UDF in 53 as trends were available from all the 140 constituencies. The BJP was leading in one seat and a smaller party in another.
The DMK-Congress alliance and the All India N.R. Congress were in close contest in Puducherry, leading in 10 and nine constituencies respectively. The union territory has a 30-member assembly.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Nirendra Dev, New Delhi, (IANS) As the poll verdict from four states saw the Congress decimated in two states and regional parties reasserting themselves in another two, BJP floor managers in parliament were keeping an eye on the general anti-Congress mood and also on the numbers in the Rajya Sabha, where crucial legislation needs across-the-spectrum support.
“There is a changed scenario. After June biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, while the Congress strength will come down, there will be enhanced numbers for the likes of the Samajwadi Party and the AIADMK. This can help help government pass key bills in Rajya Sabha,” a BJP source told IANS, exuding confidence.
But, will the Trinamool Congrees (TMC), which was poised to storm back to power in West Bengal with over two-thirds majority vote, play ball?
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, at her press conference after the contours of her party’s victory emerged, indicated she would.
“For us, our election manifesto is like raksha kawach. We have ideological differences with BJP but if there are matters which will help people, we can cooperate,” Banerjee said in Kolkata when asked about Trinamool’s role in passing the stalled Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, described as one of the government’s most important economic measures.
The TMC, in its manifesto for the 2011 assembly elections and the 2014 parliamentary polls, had promised support for the GST, which the Lok Sabha passed in 2015 but is pending in the Rajya Sabha as the BJP-led NDA lacks the numbers there.
At least one industry lobby thought the BJP could draw comfort from the showing of the TMC, as also of the AIADMK, which convincingly returned to power in Tamil Nadu.
“The NDA Government will certainly find it easier to deal with Trinamool Congress and AIADMK in the Rajya Sabha for passage of crucial bills, mainly the long-pending and the most important GST bill,” Assocham President Sunil Kanoria said.
While AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is yet to react on her party’s cooperation in parliament, her stance against the GST is well known but she also enjoys good personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
No sooner had the trends become clear on Thursday, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar asserted that the government was keen to do business with the powerful regional leaders.
“First purpose in any election is to win, secondly it is to ensure defeat of your main rivals and thirdly to feel satisfied that while your enemies like Congress and Left are defeated, the friendly regional parties have won,” Javadekar told journalists.
In the Rajya Sabha biennial elections due on June 11, the BJP hopes to gain from states like Rajasthan and Maharashtra where seats have fallen vacant.
“The assembly polls saw BJP win in Assam and decimation of Congress in crucial states. This growing anti-Congress mood will be reflected in monsoon session of parliament and regional parties like Samajwadi Party and Trinamool Congress will have to make a clear choice about pushing for legislative measures like the GST bill,” a key BJP leader said.
Of the 57 seats for which elections will be held, the BJP and the Congress each held 14.
But the Congress’ decimation in assembly polls in last two years in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Telangana could result in the party losing at least 4-5 seats.
The Congress strength in Rajya Sabha is now 64 and this could scale down to 60, but it will continue to be the single largest party in the house.
Twenty-five Rajya Sabha seats are up for grabs in states where the BJP or the National Democratic Alliance is in power. Of them, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan account for four each, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana and Jharkhand for two each, Madhya Pradesh for three and Maharashtra for six.
Of these, BJP or its NDA allies can hope to pick up 22 seats, it is estimated.
The present strength of BJP is 49 in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. With NDA allies, its number goes up to 67.
“The Congress’s strength in Rajya Sabha will come down. The BJP’s will increase marginally while regional parties like Samajwadi Party will also benefit. It is these permutations and combinations that had led (Finance Minister) Arun Jaitley to favour voting (against building consensus) in the house on important legislation like the GST bill,” the party source said.
(Nirendra Dev can be contacted at nirendra.n@ians.in)
