Rajya Sabha Elections 2026 | All six candidates from Tamil Nadu set to be elected unopposed

Once these members are officially elected, DMK's strength in the Upper House will reduce to eight from the current 10, and the AIADMK’s strength will remain at five

Chennai: All six candidates from Tamil Nadu belonging to the DMK, AIADMK, Congress, PMK, and DMDK will be elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha if their nomination papers are accepted during scrutiny on Friday. 

The candidates -- Tiruchi Siva and J Constandine Ravindran (DMK), M Thambidurai (AIADMK), Christopher Tilak (Congress), Anbumani Ramadoss (PMK), and L K Sudeesh (DMDK) -- filed their nominations on Thursday. 

The biennial elections are being held due to the retirement of six MPs out of which Siva and Thambidurai are being repeated for another term by their respective parties. Ravindran, a popular face on Tamil television channels, is also the editor of Rising Sun, the DMK’s English mouthpiece, and his nomination is significant since he joined the party from the DMDK a few years ago. 

Sudeesh got the RS berth as part of the commitment the DMK made to DMDK while Tilak is the Congress nominee from the lone seat allotted in Tamil Nadu to his party. Anbumani’s PMK was allotted one seat by its senior ally, AIADMK. 

Once these members are officially elected, the DMK's strength in the Rajya Sabha will reduce to eight from the current 10, and the AIADMK’s strength will remain at five. The Congress’ strength in Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu will increase to two with Tilak joining his senior colleague P Chidambaram.

As a convention, political parties in Tamil Nadu don’t force a contest in the Rajya Sabha as they share the seats according to their strength in the Assembly.