Three candidates nominated by the DMK for next month’s Rajya Sabha polls filed their nominations with the Returning Officer at the Secretariat on Friday, in the presence of party president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and other senior leaders.
Those who filed their nominations are R. Girirajan, the party’s legal wing secretary; S. Kalyanasundaram, Thanjavur north district unit secretary; and K.R.N. Rajeshkumar, who has been re-nominated to the seat and is the party’s Namakkal east district unit secretary.
The DMK has also allotted a seat to its ally, the Congress. A total of six Rajya Sabha seats for Tamil Nadu are set to fall vacant next month. Earlier this week, the AIADMK named former Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam and the party’s former Ramanathapuram district secretary, R. Dharmar, as its nominees for two seats.
The six Rajya Sabha members whose term is set to expire next month are the AIADMK’s A. Navaneethakrishnan, A. Vijayakumar and S.R. Balasubramoniyan; and the DMK’s K.R.N. Rajeshkumar, R.S. Bharathi and T.K.S. Elangovan.
If more than six eligible candidates file valid nominations for these six vacancies, polling would be held on June 10. Tamil Nadu has a total of 18 seats in the Upper House of Parliament.
As of now, the DMK has 10 members, the AIADMK five and the MDMK, the PMK and the Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) one member each in the Rajya Sabha.