Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Monday fielded five candidates for the biennial elections to the six Rajya Sabha seats, dashing the hopes of the CPI which thought it would get one seat to send its leader D Raja from Tamil Nadu. The efforts of senior leaders of the CPI — A B Bardhan and Sudhakar Reddy who met Jayalalithaa at Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi did not yield any results.
When asked about the CPI leaders’ meeting with her, Jayalalithaa said she had already announced that five candidates from the AIADMK would contest the RS elections. Her categorical reply has left very little hope for Raja.
At present, the AIADMK has two MPs in the Rajya Sabha — V Maitreyan and A Elavarasan. While Maitreyan has been retained, Elavarasan has not been re-nominated for the MP seat. The other four candidates fielded by Jayalalithaa are: Nilgiris District secretary K R Arjunan belonging to the Badaga community, Tiruchy Rural District secretary T Rathinavel, Villupuram North District secretary Dr R Lakshmanan and AIADMK Student Wing secretary S Saravanaperumal.
In the 234-member State Assembly, a Rajya Sabha candidate needs 34 votes to get elected. The AIADMK, with a strength of 151 members (including the Speaker) in the Assembly, could easily win four seats and was expected to seek the support of friendly parties for the fifth seat. But no other party has the required strength of even a single seat on its own.