Six elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu

Six candidates – three from DMK, two from AIADMK and one from Tamil Maanila Congress – were on Wednesday elected unopposed to the biennial polls to Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.

“All six candidates are announced elected without elections as only six nominations were received. All were accepted and the six candidates are elected unopposed,” Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer K Sreenivasan told reporters.

They were elected unopposed on Wednesday, the last day for withdrawal of nominations. While Tiruchi N Siva will get his fourth term in the Upper House of Parliament, TMC chief and former Congressman G K Vasan will enter the Upper House after a gap of six years. This will be his third term.

Others who will represent Tamil Nadu in the House are ‘Anthiyur’ Selvaraj and N R Elango (both DMK), former Lok Sabha deputy speaker M Thambidurai and former state minister K P Munusamy (both AIADMK). With this, the DMK’s strength in Rajya Sabha will increase to 7 and the AIADMK’s number will come down to 9 from 11.

Both Thambidurai and Munusamy lost the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Karur and Krishnagiri constituencies. Though Vasan’s TMC doesn’t wield much influence in Tamil Nadu – it lost the only seat it contested in 2019 polls and has no representation in the assembly – BJP seems to be behind him getting a Rajya Sabha berth from the AIADMK quota.

Sources said the BJP top brass was keen that Vasan, who quit the Congress in 2014, should be sent to Rajya Sabha. Political observers say Vasan’s elevation should be viewed from the angle of BJP’s larger plan to make inroads into Tamil Nadu, where it lacks any base for now.

Vasan’s nomination to Rajya Sabha also fuelled speculation on his elevation to the Union Cabinet and merger of his TMC with the BJP.