Rajini to launch TV channels?
Chennai, Dec 21: Ahead of the launch of superstar Rajinikanth's political party, efforts are underway for starting a television channel by a forum floated by him, with the actor authorising the use of his name and photograph in its logo.
Rajinikanth has informed in a letter to the Registrar of Trademarks that an application made by the forum chief for trademarks be processed and he had no objection to the use of his name and photo in the logo of the proposed channel.
The matter came to light after the letter went viral on social media and sources close to the Tamil actor Friday confirmed its veracity.
Administrator of the Rajini Makkal Mandram, seen as a precursor to his party, V M Sudhakar applied for the trademarks 'SUPERSTAR TV, RAJINI TV, THALAIVAR TV,' all references to the actor.
The move is seen as keeping in line with the tradition of political parties in Tamil Nadu having their own TV channels to effectively propagate their policies and programmes.
While the ruling AIADMK had recently launched 'News J' to propagate its views, a bouquet of channels under the 'Kalaignar TV' and the Marans-owned 'Sun TV' are said to be backing the opposition DMK.
'Jaya TV', managed by the relatives of jailed aide of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, V K Sasikala was originally a mouthpiece of the AIADMK, but now backs sidelined party leader T T V Dhinakaran since his fallout with current Chief Minister K Palaniswami last year.
In his letter to the Trademarks Registrar, Rajinikanth said he had "no objection to use my name, photo on the logo and label", adding the applications may be processed to the "next level".
The 68-year old actor had announced taking the political plunge in December 2017 while interacting with his fans here.
He had then said his to-be-launched political party will contest in all the 234 assembly segments in Tamil Nadu in the next elections, due in 2021.
Speculations of Rajini's political entry had started way back in 1996 when he made some 'frank' criticism of the then Jayalalithaa government.
He extended open support to the then DMK-Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) combine, which swept the 1996 assembly polls.
TMC was floated by veteran Congressman, late G K Mooapanar, after he quit the national party.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Odisha: BJD suspends 6 MLAs for cross-voting in RS polls
_vb_52.jpeg)
Bhubaneswar (PTI): The Biju Janata Dal on Saturday suspended six of its MLAs for cross-voting during the recent election to four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha.
The suspended legislators were Chakramani Kanhar of Baliguda seat, Naba Kishor Mallick of Jayadev constituency, Souvic Biswal of Choudwar-Cuttack, Subasini Jena of Basta, Ramakanta Bhoi of Tirtol and Devi Ranjan Tripathy of Banki, an order by party chief Naveen Patnaik showed.
The suspension decision was taken at the opposition party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting presided over by Patnaik.
The six MLAs were issued a show-cause notice on March 17.
They submitted their replies on Friday evening, and those were found not satisfactory, said the BJD's chief whip in the Assembly, Pramila Mallik.
The ruling BJP won two of the four Rajya Sabha seats while the opposition BJD and a saffron party-backed Independent candidate bagged one seat each in the biennial polls held last Monday.
While the total number of BJP legislators and Independent MLAs supporting the ruling party was 82 in the 147-member House, the saffron party candidates secured 93 first preference votes, which was 11 more than its strength in the Assembly.
Of these 11 votes, eight were of BJD MLAs and three of Congress legislators, an official had said.
_vb_24.jpeg)
_vb_27.jpeg)
_vb_26.jpeg)