Chennai, May 19: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has cautioned the Vijay-led TVK government against seeking the support of a faction of AIADMK legislators, stating that such a move would force the party to reconsider its backing to the government.

Addressing reporters at Tiruthuraipoondi on Tuesday, CPI(M) State secretary P. Shanmugam said the people of Tamil Nadu had delivered a verdict against both the DMK and the AIADMK, and any attempt by the TVK government to rely on support from an AIADMK faction would go against the public mandate.

He said such a political arrangement would also contradict TVK’s promise of providing clean and transparent governance.

Mr. Shanmugam expressed hope that TVK would not enter into any alliance or understanding with the AIADMK. However, he said the CPI(M) would be compelled to review its support to the government if such a decision was taken.

Explaining the party’s decision to support the TVK government, the CPI(M) leader said Tamil Nadu was not prepared for another round of elections. He also stated that the party did not want the BJP to gain entry into the State through the imposition of Governor’s rule.

He said these considerations had prompted the CPI(M) to extend support to the TVK government.

Amaravati, May 6: In what has emerged as one of the most remarkable electoral coincidences in recent Tamil Nadu political history, a DMK Minister has lost the Tirupattur Assembly constituency by a single vote — the precise margin that the BJP's election incharge for the segment had repeatedly predicted months before polling day.

Kokker Srinivas, a BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh appointed by the party's national leadership as election incharge for the Tirupattur Assembly constituency, had taken up residence in the segment from March 6 onwards, conducting an intensive campaign across all seven mandals of the constituency for 45 consecutive days until April 25.

Throughout this period, Srinivas consistently emphasised a single, unwavering message to party workers, booth-level functionaries, and allied party cadres alike: that one vote could alter political destiny.

"One vote changes political fate," he told gatherings across the constituency. "One vote decides victory. This one vote can change history." The message was repeated not merely as a rhetorical device, but as a strategic directive — workers were mobilised with the explicit understanding that no vote could be treated as inconsequential.

The same message was carried to meetings of the National Democratic Alliance partners in the constituency, including the AIADMK and the AMMK, where Srinivas elaborated the point with historical examples of razor-thin electoral outcomes.

When results came, the words acquired new weight

When votes were counted on May 4, the outcome at Tirupattur confounded observers across the political spectrum. The TVK candidate prevailed over the sitting DMK Minister by a margin of exactly one vote — a result described by election analysts as virtually without precedent in Tamil Nadu's electoral history.

The coincidence was not lost on BJP workers who had sat through those pre-election meetings.

"When he said it then, we took it as motivational talk," admitted a senior BJP functionary in Tirupattur. "But he said it so clearly, so many times — only now do we realise the full significance of what he was telling us."

A question of political foresight

The episode has since sparked considerable discussion across party lines in Tirupattur and beyond — not merely about the extraordinary result itself, but about the degree to which the BJP's national apparatus had assessed ground realities in the constituency with precision.

Whether the repeated emphasis on a single-vote margin reflected a precise reading of the constituency's electoral arithmetic, or whether it was a general motivational strategy that happened to align with an extraordinary outcome, remains a matter of conjecture. What is beyond dispute, however, is that the phrase "one vote" has acquired an entirely new resonance in Tirupattur's political lexicon.

The result has drawn wide coverage across print and electronic media, with analysts examining both the mechanics of the recount process and the broader implications of such a narrow verdict in a constituency where a Cabinet Minister was the incumbent.

For the BJP, whose candidate was not the eventual winner, the episode has nonetheless provided an unexpected moment of political vindication — the party's meticulous booth-level mobilisation and the incharge's insistent messaging are now being cited within its ranks as evidence of sound ground-level intelligence.

The Tirupattur constituency result is currently under scrutiny, with legal and procedural processes expected to follow given the unprecedented margin.

Vijayawada, April 20: The Andhra Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Congress party and its allies for opposing the Women's Reservation Bill, announcing a series of NDA protest programmes across the State later this month.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP State office in Vijayawada, party State general secretary Nagotu Ramesh Naidu accused Congress and its allies — the Trinamool Congress, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Samajwadi Party — of collectively blocking legislation that sought to ensure equal political representation for women. "They are celebrating this obstruction as though it were a great victory," he said.

Mr. Naidu recalled that the Congress-led UPA government had, during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi, enacted special legislation in the Shah Bano case overriding a Supreme Court ruling. He further noted that while Sonia Gandhi had successfully steered the Women's Reservation Bill through the Rajya Sabha, the party failed to bring it to a vote in the Lok Sabha. He accused the Congress of using Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to play what he termed a "Shikandi role" in obstructing the bill.

Asserting that delimitation must not be carried out on the basis of population ratios alone, Mr. Naidu said the BJP remained committed to reintroducing the Women's Reservation Bill and securing its passage. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working towards making women equal partners in the nation's development, and no obstacle will deter that goal," he said.

The party announced a series of protest events across Andhra Pradesh. On April 24, a demonstration will be held in Vijayawada with BJP State president P.V.N. Madhav, Minister Kandula Durgesh and TDP State president Palla Srinivasarao as chief guests. A parallel protest will be organised in Rajamahendravari under the leadership of MP Daggubati Purandeswari on the same day.

On April 25, Union Minister of State Bhupatiraju Srinivas Varma will participate in protests at Tirupati, while a separate programme is scheduled in Kurnool.

BJP NTR District president Adduri Sriram was also present at the press conference.

NEW DELHI, April 18: Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched a sharp attack on the Opposition on Friday, expressing outrage over the defeat of key legislation related to women's reservations in the Lok Sabha and accusing the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and Samajwadi Party of collectively undermining women's empowerment.

Taking to the social media platform X, Mr. Shah said it was shameful that the Opposition parties were celebrating the defeat of a Bill that would have strengthened women's political representation. "This is not the first time Congress and its allies have done this. They have consistently adopted the same stance on critical issues concerning national development and women's empowerment," he said.

The Home Minister asserted that the Congress had no genuine interest in national development, women's rights, or empowerment, and that all the parties that had voted against the Bill had together betrayed Indian women who had been fighting for their rights for decades.

Mr. Shah warned that the Opposition would face a decisive political response from the women of India in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections. "The women of this country will give a fitting answer to the parties that opposed the Women's Reservation Bill," he said, adding that no political force could afford to take women's aspirations lightly.

The 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill, which sought to fast-track the implementation of the one-third reservation for women in legislative bodies, was defeated in the Lok Sabha on Thursday after the ruling National Democratic Alliance failed to secure the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment. Of the 528 members who participated in the division vote, 298 supported the Bill while 230 voted against it, leaving the government 54 votes short of the required 352.

AMARAVATI, April 18: The defeat of the 131st Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha amounted to a stain on Indian democracy, Andhra Pradesh BJP chief spokesman Valluru Jayaprakash Narayan said on Friday, accusing the Congress-led INDIA bloc of committing a grave injustice against the women of this country by blocking legislation that would have expedited the implementation of women's reservations in legislative bodies.

In a strongly worded statement, Mr. Narayan described April 17 as a day of humiliation for every mother, sister, and daughter in India. He alleged that while Congress spoke at length about women's empowerment, its actions in Parliament told an entirely different story.

"Congress has spewed poison on the question of women's reservations. Snatching away women's rights is a political sin. It is shameful that Congress is celebrating having defeated the women of this nation," he said.

Dynasty politics at the root of opposition, alleges BJP

Mr. Narayan alleged that the Congress party had consistently pursued anti-women policies, and that all parties that had obstructed the Women's Reservation Bill were those accustomed to dynastic rule. He contended that these parties could not tolerate the prospect of ordinary women securing a place in legislative assemblies.

Holding Congress president Rahul Gandhi and leaders of the INDIA bloc directly responsible, he accused them of having betrayed women by promising reservations while in power and failing to deliver. "They are traitors to the women of this country," he said.

The BJP spokesman observed that despite being rejected by the electorate on multiple occasions, the Congress had shown no signs of course correction. He predicted that the women of India would deliver a fitting political response to the Congress alliance in the days ahead.

Calling for electoral accountability, Mr. Narayan urged voters in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu to defeat the Congress, DMK, and TMC alliances in the upcoming elections as an assertion of women's self-respect and dignity.

"Women's power will make itself heard," he said.