Chidambaram and five others to be elected unopposed to RS

Former Union Minister P Chidambaram and five others – three from the ruling DMK and two belonging to principal opposition AIADMK – are likely to be elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.

The nominations filed by six candidates for as many vacancies were taken up for scrutiny on Wednesday, a day after the filing of nominations ended.

“Nomination papers of all six candidates were taken up for scrutiny by the Returning Officer K Srinivasan, the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, on Wednesday. All six nominations have been accepted,” an official statement said.

Chidambaram (Congress), ‘Thanjai’ S Kalyanasundaram, R Girirajan, and K R N Rajeshkumar (all DMK), C Ve Shanmugham and R Dharmar (all AIADMK) submitted nominations to the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha from the state.

Since the nomination papers of all six have been accepted, the candidates will be declared unopposed on Friday, the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

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

Political parties in Tamil Nadu have refrained from forcing a contest in the Rajya Sabha elections. While the DMK and its allies have enough strength to win four seats, the AIADMK can win two on its own.

With this, all six candidates have filed nominations and they will be elected unopposed, in all probability. DMK has fielded K R N Rajeshkumar, and R Girirajan.

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.