CHENNAI: Within hours of All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar’s meeting with TVK president and Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay at the secretariat on Wednesday, TVK officially announced the lone Rajya Sabha seat would be given to the Grand Old Party. Since TVK is the single largest party in the Assembly, its ally Congress is expected to comfortably win the seat.
The announcement came in the backdrop of the vacancy created by the resignation of former AIADMK minister CVe Shanmugam from the upper House. For TVK, which came to power in May, it is a maiden opportunity to nominate a candidate to the Rajya Sabha.
AICC sources told TNIE the party is most likely to nominate Praveen Chakravarty, chairperson of All India Professionals’ Congress — who is considered as a close confidant of Vijay — for the Rajya Sabha MP post.
The chief minister himself publicly acknowledged Praveen Chakravarty’s role during the swearing-in ceremony, naming him and thanking him for being present on the occasion.
“Praveen had been wanting to go to Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu for sometime. But, as long as we were with the DMK, the former ruling party was not in favour of nominating him to the upper house or the lower house.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he was supposed to be fielded from Mayiladuthurai, however, his name was dropped after DMK pressed for it,” the source said, adding it was the same case when the party got an RS seat from the DMK in 2026, days before the Assembly election.
Praveen Chakravarty, who has been associated with the Congress party’s data and research wing, would bring both political heft and technical expertise to Rajya Sabha if the appointment goes through after getting the nod from the party high command, a senior AICC functionary said. The poll will be held on June 18.
Earlier in the day, Chodankar while talking to reporters after meeting the CM, refused to comment on the speculation about a change in TNCC leadership. He said any such development, if it were to occur, would be communicated through proper channels.