CHENNAI: The DMK on Sunday named three candidates for the biennial elections to the six Rajya Sabha seats that would fall vacant from Tamil Nadu on June 29 and allotted one seat to its ally, the Congress.
While KRN Rajeshkumar, who was elected unopposed to the upper house last year in a bypoll, was retained, the other two candidates are Thanjai Su Kalyanasundaram, a party veteran and district secretary of Thanjavur (North) district, and DMK legal wing secretary R Girirajan.
The tenure of TKS Elangovan, RS Bharathi and KRN Rajeshkumar of the DMK and A Navaneethakrishnan, SR Balasubramoniyan and A Vijayakumar of the AIADMK will end on June 29.
According to sources, a tough fight is on to grab the lone seat allotted to the Congress, with senior leaders, including former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, believed to be in the fray. The term of P Chidambaram, who was elected from Maharashtra as RS member in 2016, ends in July 2022. The former home minister had called on DMK chief Stalin recently. In the AIADMK camp, there are a string of contenders for the two RS seats, including former ministers, party sources said.
The biennial elections, to be held on June 10, would not alter the DMK's current strength of 10 in the upper house. The strength of the AIADMK alliance, however, will drop to four from five.
After the Election Commission of India announced the Rajya Sabha polls, at least 50 members of the DMK have been pushing the leadership for seats. The DMK alliance can comfortably win four seats. "Though the leadership finally picks the right candidates, it should have invited applications from all eligible candidates. This would have given the aspirants an opportunity to meet the high command and voice their grievances,” a State-level DMK functionary told TNIE.
Another senior DMK functionary said that many aspirants were waiting for the party to call for applications. "After assuming power, the CM and other top leaders were busy with controlling Covid-19. Local body elections and budget session soon followed. Because of this, none of the potential aspirants were able to meet the leaders to present their case for Rajya Sabha seats," he said.
A few other leaders also told TNIE that the announcement of candidates may affect the morale of second-rung leaders. "During Karunanidhi’s time, the DMK patriarch would meet all eligible candidates and convince them to accept the party's decision if their names were not on the chosen list. He would also assure them of another opportunity. This would give them solace,” a former MLA said.