Six candidates from TN file nominations for RS polls

Chennai, Mar 5 (PTI) Six candidates from the DMK, AIADMK and their allies filed their nominations on Thursday for the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha.

Among them, four were from the ruling DMK combine and two were from the opposition AIADMK. It included two veterans, Trichy N Siva (DMK) and M Thambidurai (AIADMK).

Chief Minister M K Stalin, who is the president of the DMK, accompanied all four candidates during the submission of papers on the last day of filing nominations for the biennial election on March 16.

DMK's Tiruchi Siva and J Constantine Ravindran, and the party's alliance candidates M Christopher Tilak from the Congress, and L K Sudeesh, DMDK treasurer, submitted their papers before the polling official at the Secretariat here.

The DMK's allies, the Congress and Premalatha Vijayakanth-led DMDK, which joined the alliance recently, have been allotted a seat each by the Dravidian major out of four Rajya Sabha seats allocated for the DMK.

While Siva is a four-time Rajya Sabha member, Constantine, the DMK spokesperson, Tilak and Sudeesh would be elected for the first time.

The present Rajya Sabha election marks a major milestone for the DMDK as it would get an MP for the first time since the party was founded in 2005. The party has been nursing the ambition of sending Sudeesh, brother-in-law of DMDK founder 'Captain' Vijayakanth, to the Parliament.

After hectic bargaining with the AIADMK and blaming its chief Edappadi K Palaniswami for delaying the allocation of the seat to the party, Premalatha, who is DMDK general secretary, met the DMK president and joined the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance on February 19.

The AIADMK and its ally, the BJP, were keen on roping in PMK (Anbumani) faction to the NDA, and on March 4, Palaniswami announced a Rajya Sabha seat to Anbumani.

Five-time Lok Sabha MP and Rajya Sabha member since April 2020 M Thambidurai and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss filed their nomination papers, accompanied by party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and other senior AIADMK leaders, respectively.

The PMK (Anbumani faction) is part of the AIADMK-led alliance in the state and it was allotted a seat by the AIADMK on March 4.

All six candidates are set to win as they will be elected based on the strength of the DMK, Congress and AIADMK in the state Assembly.

Constantine, Sudeesh and Tilak would be making their debut.

Following the submission of nominations, the Chief Minister said the DMK and its allies would "continue to be the voice that defends democracy in Rajya Sabha." In a post on the social media platform 'X', Stalin said, "We will continue to work to uphold our constitutional values and the unity and pluralism of India." Congratulating the AIADMK and PMK candidates upon filing the papers, BJP state chief Nainar Nagenthran said on 'X', "Their voices would strongly resonate for people's rights and interests in the Parliament." Meanwhile, P Swaminathan of PMK S Ramadoss faction filed his nomination papers seeking to contest the Rajya Sabha election.

After scrutiny of nominations on March 6, the election will be held on March 16 if required. PTI JSP JSP KH