Tamilnadu Local body elections

As usual AIADMK has announced its candidates early for the TN Local body elections and already has a headstart. Based on the reputation of the candidates atleast on three corpoarations AIADMK has already an advantage.

Chennai - Saidai Duraiswamy
Madurai - Rajan Chellapa
Coimbatore - Velusamy

I will boldly predict Madurai and Coimbatore will be won by AIADMK. In Chennai also AIADMK can win if the opposition (DMK) candidate is weak. The two candidates who can give fight to Saidai Duraiswamy is the present mayor M.Subramanim and former minister Paruthi Ilamvazhuthi. Any one with lesser stature means easy victory for AIADMK.

Some of the Municipality Chairman AIADMK candidates also looks strong. So even without the help of alliance partners we can see AIADMK romping home

But if DMK puts its house in order and if they are energized and motivated by either Kalaignar or Stalin, we can expect a good fight.(If kanimozhi is released sooner it will be a tonic for them). Otherwise it is going to be one-sided fight.

Writing in HubPages too

Have started writing in Hubpages - a content article writing site. Check out at http://msivakumar.hubpages.com/.

Will continue writing here also. Meanhile you can check few articles which I have written in HubPages

Media Hounding

Trial by Media has reached epic proportions in the A.Raja case or the 2G Scam. If you are very critical, you can even say that the media's reaction and comments has racial overtones. When the accused is defending and presenitng his side of case, the reporting by media has to be factual - the least expected of them. What is dismaying is that as if the media has already given judgement and executed Raja. Looks like anything that resurrects him or any new person brought into the trial again cannot be tolerated by media. Guess sooner or later something has to be happen (like News of the world episode) to reign in the new age media powerhouses.

Would like to appreciate our good old "The Hindu" who alone seems to know, how to actually "report" a news itesm as it happens. Would be better if all the new age Media channels will learn a thing or two from the legend.

Loss at Lords

After all the hype and hoopla, it is bitter for the Indian Cricket fans to see the team losing at Lords. Though the result shows that India lost by a huge margin - India could have still managed a draw - its about another 25 odd overs and about one-and-a-half hours of play ... May be if Dravid was there for an hour or more, may be if Gambhir ...may be if Dhoni .......

But I guess the discerning critics saw the defeat coming ..Its all about attitude. We have to honestly admit that India never behaved how as a No 1 team should be. Leave the rankings. It is not aggressive and dominating enough to play as a team which believed themselves.

The disease started at the WI series few weeks back, where the team should have gone for the win on the final day. Lame excuses given by the coach and the captain. In the fourth day at Lords when Ishant was going great guns, he was not given the spell again lame excuse by the captain. With or without Sehwag, the target given by England is achievable by the modern day standards - at least it would have created doubts in the minds of England bowlers and they might be defensive - time and again it has been proved it is difficult to play out a draw - it is better to attack and then try to defend. I am sure, in a similar situation, Australian team under Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting would have played differently. Even Tendulkar went into a shell and could never recover ...

Dhoni's captaincy and communication is not inspiring ...Let us see in the coming weeks ...

TN Election Results

The results are more or less in the expected lines save some surprises here and there with some close margins:

Unlucky Losers

• Paruthi Ilamvazhuthi (DMK)


• Saidai Duraiswamy (AIADMK)

Both of them deserved to be in the Assembly. Paruthi losing by 202 votes is especially heartbreaking.

Jinxed Loser

• Raja Kannapan (AIADMK)

First with P.Chidambaram and now with Periya Karuppan. Both close calls and he has every reason to believe that he has won. But may be he is paying price for his past sins.


Ruing Losers

• S.Muthusamy (DMK)


• Sekar Babu (DMK)

Both switching sides to DMK from AIADMK only recently - will be ruing themselves what made them see the brighter in the other side. Surely both of them would have been the winning candidates if only they have stuck to their parnt party ....but ..if only they have known ......


Dismayed Losers

• VCK Candidates


• KMP (Kongu Munnetra Peravai) Candidates

Two caste based parties ideologically opposite to each other but on the same side drawing blank in the hustles. A lesson or two to be learnt especially for the KMP ...

"Fading Charm" Loser

• S.Thirunavukkarasar

Used to win in his constituency in whatever situation - the Lion of Aranthangi -
is in the receiving end this time. Having spent time in almost all the major political parties in the state (except DMK) may be its time for him to surrender to JJ to resurrect his career.

Lucky Winners

• SarathKumar


• Thaniyarasu


• Ernavoor Naryanan

All the above winning in the AIADMK's two leaves symbol with Sarath and EN defeating their more fancied rivals. And Thaniyarasu is likely to be a monster in the making. Let us wait and see.
Corporate Winner

• Mafoi Pandiarajan

Having played the spoiler role in the defeat of Vaiko in the Loksabha polls, this time the suave corporate honcho ensured he was elected to the Assembly.

Raja Syndrome ??

Rajarathnam
A.Raja
Rajat Gupta
Ramalinga Raju

.....is something in their names which makes them vulnerable to millions and billions ??

DMK's Achilles heel

Wikipedia defines - An Achilles’ heel is a deadly weakness in spite of overall strength, that can actually or potentially lead to downfall.

Even for a casual observer of TN politics it is easy to figure out what is wrong in the ruling DMK party. From almost an invincible position just a couple of months ago - with consecutive wins in by-elections, unbelievable money power, powerful media backing - suddenly DMK seems to vulnerable. The success of Jaya's massive meeting in Kovai may not be the only factor. The brazen and open domination of the octogenarian leaders immediate family is an ongoing joke in TN. Maran's, Alagiri's, Stalin's, Kanimozhi's .....and all and sundry of the DMK family member hog the limelight these days. All these are bound to have "some" impact in the silent public.

The business interests of the Karunanidhi's clan are awesome and unbelievable. It will be naive to believe that everything happened through clean hands. Some of the "activities" of the family are :

- SUN TV group including Dinakaran and Kumkumam - Maran Family
- Kalignar TV - Kalaignar Family
- Cloud Nine Movies - Azhagiri's son
- Red Giant Movies - Stalins son
- Sumangali Cable Vision - Maran Family
- Royal Cable Vision/Jak communications - Azhagiri Family
- Spice jet - Maran has around 40% stake

In addition to this assorted interests in furniture retail, two wheeler dealerships, real estate and et all.

The most unbelievable thing is - DMK - a cadre based party and a party with strong second-third rung leaders is at the mercy of one family. The only saving grace is - M.K.Stalin the once much maligned power centre in DMK now looks like an angel compared to the strong arm tactics of his brother Alagiri. All in spite of the party having powerful district secretaries who almost rule their district as a feudal kingdom.

If DMK has to lose the assembly elections 2011 they know who to blame.....