Kattuppadu trumps Koottani? NDA under stress in Tamil Nadu; EPS draws red line

For Tamil Nadu’s political culture, shaped by decades of Dravidian assertion and a strong emphasis on regional autonomy, such an explicit pre-election claim has few precedents. The reaction within the AIADMK has been wary, if not outright resistant, as the BJP’s clout in the South remains lean. The pre-poll power-sharing deal, however, is only one strand in a much larger and more byzantine political development.