Brick 2.0
It looks like bricks from AIIMS will make a comeback in the next Lok Sabha elections too. During the last Assembly elections in the state, Udhayanidhi Stalin had raised the issue of delay in construction of AIIMS in Madurai, and even now the work has not made any headway since then. Recently, while participating in a government event in Madurai, he took a dig at the union government saying that “before people take bricks in hand for the delay in constructing AIIMS, the central government must finish the construction.”
Just biryani
It is no secret that political parties offer people food and money, and sometimes booze, to attend rallies and meetings. In one such incident, DMK had mobilised over 50,000 women to attend minister’s programme on February 6. According to a few women who attended the meet, they were each allegedly promised biryani for lunch, dinner and cash of Rs 200. They were brought in vans and buses to the venue at 2pm and the programme ended at 7 pm. However, the women said they were only given biryani and did not get dinner, while only a few of them received Rs 200.
Politics at play
The police crackdown on student activists affiliated to left parties when they attempted to screen the BBC documentary on Gujarat 2002 riots has become a bone of contention between DMK and its alliance parties. This follows the spat over the chief minister’s decision to attend the ‘At Home’ party hosted by Governor RN Ravi at the Raj Bhavan on Republic Day. Left parties had questioned why many DMK leaders had attended the event when the chief minister probably attended out of political decency. Although the left leaders openly criticised the police and the administration for the crackdown, they did not name the state government.
Weeding out fakes
Tangedco officials who are busy with linking power connections with Aadhaar numbers before the February 15 deadline are now faced with a new problem – weeding out fake numbers. The department recently discovered that a large number of fake Aadhaar numbers have been entered into the portal. An alleged leaked audio of a conversation between two top officials, which has gone viral, hinted that there were about 10.4 lakh fake Aadhaar numbers.
Party in splits
Sivaganga has become a part of ongoing Erode East byelection, but here AIADMK is not seeking votes, rather factions are busy trying to prove who’s the leader of the ‘two-leaves’ symbol. Posters by EPS supporters say he is ‘thalaivar’ (leader) who has retrieved the Two-Leaves symbol, whereas posters by OPS supporters claim he is ‘pathukavalare’ (saviour) of ‘Two-Leaves’ symbol.
(Contributions by Gayathri Venkatesan, Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam, S Kumaresan, S Guruvanmikanathan, Vignesh V; compiled by Affan Abdul Kadar)