Ending days of speculation over its choice of candidates for two Rajya Sabha seats, the AIADMK, on Wednesday night, nominated former Law Minister, C.Ve. Shanmugam and the party’s former Ramanathapuram district secretary R. Dharmar for the seats.
This was announced by O. Panneerselvam, coordinator, and Edappadi K. Palaniswami, co-coordinator in a release. Earlier, deputy coordinators, K.P. Munusamy and R. Vaithilingam held a nearly three hour-long discussion at the residence of Mr. Panneerselvam in the city.
While Mr. Shamugam, also the AIADMK’s Villupuram district secretary, belongs to the Vanniyar community, Mr. Dharmar is from the Maravar sub-sect of Mukkolathors.
The former Law Minister has been with the camp led by Edappadi K. Palaniswami and looking after legal issues concerning the party. Mr. Dharmar held the post of Ramanathapuram district secretary in 2016, before he was replaced with former IT Minister M. Manikandan. At present, he is the chairperson of Mudukulathur panchayat union, besides being the secretary of the panchayat union unit of the party.
One factor that clinched in his favour was that he was instrumental in organising a meeting in his district for Mr. Panneerselvam, when the AIADMK coordinator undertook the “Dharma Yudham’‘ campaign in 2017. By choosing the two persons, the party maintained a balance between regions and communities, says a senior leader.
Several names were doing rounds in the last couple of weeks and they included former Ministers S. Semmalai, D. Jayakumar B. Valarmathi and R. Gokula Indira; Madurai’s former Member of Parliament, R. Gopalakrishnan and former legislator J.C.D. Prabhakar.
Last week, a meeting was held with senior members and functionaries to discuss the names, in which the party leadership was authorised to finalise the candidates.
