CHENNAI: With Thursday being the last date for filing of nominations to the six Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu, the ruling DMK and AIADMK have announced their candidates for three seats.
Soon after signing its seat-sharing pact with Congress, DMK, which has enough members in the Assembly to get four of the six MPs elected, announced incumbent MP Tiruchi Siva and party spokesperson J Constantine Ravindran as its candidates for two seats. The ruling party has allotted one seat to DMDK and one seat to Congress.
Principal opposition AIADMK, which can get two RS MPs elected, announced senior leader M Thambidurai as its candidate. The party has allotted the other seat to PMK. PMK chief Dr Anbumani Ramadoss is expected to file his nominations for that seat on Friday.
Congress sources said Christopher Tilak from Tiruchy, who is serving as AICC secretary and in-charge of Manipur and Nagaland, and Meenakshi Natarajan, AICC in-charge of Telangana and former Lok Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh, are the frontrunners. A Chellakumar, AICC in-charge for Meghalaya and former Krishnagiri MP, is also being considered as a potential candidate from the Congress.
In DMDK, though there is no official announcement, sources confirmed that LK Sudhish, party treasurer and brother of general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth, will be the candidate.
There will be no election for the six vacancies since the number of vacancies equals the number of valid candidates. Though three independents had filed their nominations, their nominations are expected to be rejected during the scrutiny of papers on March 6 due to inadequate number of endorsements.
The last date for withdrawal of nominations is on March 9. All the six candidates, who will get elected unopposed, will be issued the certificate of election the same day.
