Chennai: Six candidates belonging to Dravidian majors, AIADMK and DMK, were on Friday elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha as the process to fill the vacancies created by retiring members ended. With four members, the AIADMK’s strength in the Upper House will rise to 12 from the existing 11, while the DMK will have 4 members.
AIADMK floor leader in Rajya Sabha A. Navaneethakrishnan, former minister R. Vaithilingam, former Union minister S.R. Balasubramanian and A. Vijayakumar of the AIADMK lawyers’ wing and DMK’s T.K.S. Elangovan and R.S. Bharathi were announced elected unopposed as withdrawal of nominations ended at 3 pm on Friday.
Though seven independent candidates had filed nominations to contest biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha, returning officer A. M. P. Jamaludeen, who is also the Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary, rejected their nominations for want of enough support from MLAs.
Since only six candidates were in the fray for as many vacancies, Mr Jamaludeen declared them elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha. Tamil Nadu sends 18 members to Rajya Sabha.
Since the AIADMK won 134 seats in the May 16 Assembly elections, the party nominated four members based on its strength in the Assembly and the DMK, which won 98, fielded two candidates. Though only three of the retiring members are from the AIADMK, the ruling party won one more seat in addition to the existing three due to its strength in the Assembly.
The AIADMK’s strength is Rajya Sabha has gone up to 12, while the DMK’s number remains at four. Though the AIADMK’s strength has gone up only by 1 seat, the ruling BJP at the Centre is jubilant since the Dravidian party has been bailing out the NDA Government in the Upper House.
