All 6 candidates set to get elected to Rajya Sabha

Chennai: With the last date for filing nominations for six Rajya Sabha seats from TN ending on Tuesday, only six ca­ndidates including four fr­o­m AIADMK and one each from DMK and CPM have filed their papers thereby eliminating the necessity of an election. 

At least 34 legislative vo­tes are needed for electing each candidate for the six RS seats from the state.

While the term for the present RS members ends on April 2, the nomination papers  will be scrutinised on January 29 and the last date for withdrawal of ap­p­li­cations will be January 31.  If there are no with­d­r­a­wals until 3 pm on Fri­day, all  candidates who ha­ve fi­led their nominations wi­ll be elected to the RS from Ta­mil Nadu.

As of now, the likely RS members for the coming term are Muthukaruppan, A.K. Selvaraj, Sasikala Pu­shpa and Vijila Sathy­an­arayanan from AIADMK,  T.K. Rengarajan (CPM) and Tiruchy N. Siva from DMK.  These candidates wi­ll be automatically elected unless some of them de­cide to withdraw their no­mination which is highly unlikely.

The decision by DMDK not to field a candidate for the RS despite having 21 votes and being wooed by  DMK for an electoral all­iance for the coming Lok Sabha polls clearly indicates that Captain is in no mood to forge an alliance with the Dravidian party.

Of the 29 DMDK members in the Assembly, Pan­ruti Ramachandran left the party while seven others shifted to AIADMK ca­mp.

Reliable sources say the DMK patriarch was gladly willing to extend his 26 votes including two bel­onging to the Man­idh­an­eya Makkal Katchi (MMK) and one vote of Pu­t­hiya Ta­mizhagam Krish­nas­a­my to Captain’s DM­DK if only he agreed to joi­ning hands with DMK for fighting Lok Sabha electi­ons th­ereby elevating his party to the Rajya Sabha. 

“Kalaignar could have fo­rced Tiruchy N. Siva to withdraw his nomination if only Captain was willi­ng to extend his support. But the DMDK leader de­cided to stay away and has sent a strong message on his animosity for  DMK and his leaning towards an alliance with the saffron br­igade,” said a veteran po­litical analyst.

The other major indicator of the political mood in the state is the decision by DMK to rift further away from Congress which has five votes in its basket. Sources point out that the Congress high command was expecting an RS seat from TN with DMK supp­ort in exchange for the su­pport it lent to DMK in making Kanimozhi an MP in the past.

“But, Kala­ig­nar categorically avoided the Congress and nominated Siva for the seat indicating the snapping of ties,” a sources said.