DMK candidates file nomination for RS elections

Three candidates from the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Friday filed their nomination papers for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.

‘Thanjai’ S Kalyanasundaram, K R N Rajeshkumar, and R Girirajan submitted their nominations to K Srinivasan, Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin, and senior DMK leaders including Durai Murugan and Kanimozhi.

Elections to fill six vacancies will be held on June 10 for which filing of nominations will end on May 31. While the nominations will be taken up for scrutiny on June 1, the last date for withdrawing nominations is June 3.

With its strength and that of its allies, DMK can win four seats and AIADMK, the principal opposition, two seats. While the DMK is contesting three seats, the party allotted one seat to Congress.

AIADMK has announced its candidates for the two seats – former minister C Ve Shanmugam and R Dharmar, while the Congress is yet to declare its candidate though the frontrunner is former Union Minister P Chidambaram. All the six will be elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.

After the biennial elections, DMK’s strength will remain at 10, while AIADMK’s number will reduce to four. MDMK, TMC, and PMK have one seat each, while one member will represent Congress. Tamil Nadu sends 18 members to the Rajya Sabha.

Congress will have an RS member from Tamil Nadu after a gap of six years following the retirement of E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, bête noire of Chidambaram, in 2016.

Apart from Chidambaram, TNCC chief K S Alagiri, it is learnt, is also making a strong case for his nomination by pointing out that he opted out of the 2019 Lok Sabha contest on his own after being appointed as the TNCC chief.