Tamil Nadu

Coimbatore, Mar 8 (PTI) CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury Friday alleged that the Election Commission was deliberately delaying the announcement of the Lok Sabha election dates to favour the ruling BJP.

Addressing a public meeting here tonight, he said that in 2014, the EC had announced the date as March 5 for the general elections.

But despite the date being March 8, the Commission was yet to announce the dates.

Chennai, Mar 5 (PTI) The DMK on Tuesday announced that it would contest from 20 seats in Tamil Nadu in the Lok Sabha elections, with the M K Stalin-led party finalising its seat-sharing agreements with all of its allies -- a total eight of them.

The DMK's announcement virtually closes the door on Vijayakanth's DMDK, which is yet to forge an alliance though the ruling AIADMK is positive about aligning with the actor-politician's party. The DMK had earlier wooed the DMDK for an alliance.

Coimbatore, Mar 4 (PTI) The casualty figure in the air strike on the Balakot camp will be given out by the government, Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa said on Monday while asserting that the Indian Air Force does not count the number of dead.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the death toll depends on the number of people present at the target.

Tirunelveli (TN), Feb 24 (PTI) Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan Sunday denied that his outfit was the Bharatiya Janata Party's "B team" and asserted that the party was being targeted as they were growing in stature.

Addressing a party rally here late tonight, Haasan, without directly naming any outfit, said he was being targeted as his party was growing in stature.

One of the attacks was calling his party "the BJP's B team," he said.

Chennai, Feb 19 (PTI) Twentyfive Sri Lankan fishermen have been arrested and five Lankan fishing boats seized for allegedly fishing illegally in Indian waters about 90 km off Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.

The CG was maintaining strict vigil following the recent Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

Chennai, Feb 18 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Monday demanded statehood for both the national capital and Puducherry, saying people in these two union territories should not be discriminated against.

Kejriwal, who was here en route to Puducherry to express solidarity with Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy -locked in a turf war with Lt Governor Kiran Bedi- alleged that the situation in the two union territories was the same.

Chennai, Feb 12 (PTI): The Tamil Nadu government Tuesday urged the Centre to allot an additional 1500 Hajj seats to the state's quota in view of the demand.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Centre has allotted 3,534 seats in 2019 for the people of Tamil Nadu to perform Hajj.

Coimbatore, Feb 9 (PTI) The BJP in Tamil Nadu Saturday reiterated that it would fight the coming Lok Sabha polls in alliance with parties which are not part of the DMK-Congress tie-up.

"There is no situation wherein the BJP will fight the elections single-handedly and it will be fought with an alliance as announced earlier," State BJP president Tamilisai Soundarajan told reporters here.

Cuddalore (TN), Feb 8 (PTI) A court here Friday sentenced a fish trader to 14 years imprisonment for repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl two years ago on the pretext of marrying her.

Chinnadurai, 34, was also fined Rs 15,000.

Chennai, Feb 6 (PTI) Vexed with the filing of numerous anticipatory bail pleas, the Madras High Court on Wednesday observed that the accused need not be arrested in all criminal cases at the stage of investigation and the probe can be carried out effectively without custodial interrogation.

Justice Anand Venkatesh made the observation while granting anticipatory bail to an accused in a matrimonial dispute case and asked the police to pull up their socks and show more quality and maturity in investigations.