Chennai: Four AIADMK nominees contesting the biennial polls to Rajya Sabha filed their nomination on Friday and are likely to be elected unopposed along with two DMK candidates.
S.R. Balasubramanian, who jumped the ship from TMC to AIADMK on the eve of elections. R. Vaithilingam, who lost the Assembly by a narrow margin, party floor leader in Rajya Sabha A. Naveneethakrishnan and A. Vijayakumar filed their nomination papers with Assembly secretary A.M.P. Jamaludeen.
Senior cabinet ministers and AIADMK MLAs were present on the occasion. Six Rajya Sabha members — three from AIADMK, two from DMK and one from Congress — are retiring on June 29 and elections to fill these vacancies will be held on June 11 if necessary. DMK’s T.K.S. Elangovan and R.S. Bharathi have also filed their nominations.
Since only six members have filed nomination for six vacancies, all are expected to be unopposed. With the election of four members, AIADMK’s strength in the Rajya Sabha is set to go up from the current 12 to 13.
Though the AIADMK’s strength would go up only by one seat, the ruling BJP at the Centre is happy with the fact that the Dravidian party will have 13 MPs from next month, which would help them in getting crucial bills passed.
AIADMK has been supporting the BJP, which is struggling to cobble up a majority in the Upper House that is dominated by the Congress, in Rajya Sabha and it is a known fact that BJP top brass — from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu — share excellent rapport with Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
