Rajya Sabha polls: Nominations of all six candidates from Tamil Nadu accepted
The nominations of the official candidates of both the DMK and AIADMK for the Rajya Sabha elections were accepted while those filed by independents were rejected during scrutiny on Friday, leaving in the fray six aspirants who would be declared elected unopposed.
Among those who would go to the Rajya Sabha now are long time Rajya Sabha member Trichi Siva of the DMK, sitting member M Thambidurai (AIADMK) and former member Anbumani Ramadoss, who heads a breakaway faction of PMK, now nominated by the AIADMK as part of an agreement on Assembly seat sharing.
Constantine Ravindran belonging to the DMK, L K Sudeesh, of the DMDK and Christopher Tilak of the Congress would be the first time members of the Upper House. Sudeesh and Tilak were nominated by the DMK.
The biennial elections are being held due to the retirement of six MPs out of which Siva and Thambidurai are being repeated for another term by their respective parties.
Ravindran, a popular face on Tamil television channels, is also the editor of Rising Sun, the DMK’s English mouthpiece, and his nomination is significant since he joined the party from the DMDK a few years ago.