Chennai, May 30: Senior Congress leader and Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram and two candidates of the main Opposition AIADMK in Tamil Nadu today filed their nomination papers for the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections from the State Assembly.
The former Union Minister after calling key alliance leader and DMK President and Chief Minister M.K.Stalin at his camp office along with his son and Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram, filed his nomination papers before the Returning Officer and Legislative Assembly Secretary K.Srinivasan.
Chidambaram, who filed his papers from Tamil Nadu for the first time, was accompanied by TNCC President K.S.Alagiri, Congress leaders and DMK Ministers. Later, Chidambaram thanked AICC President Sonia Gandhi for nominating him for the seat. He also thanked Stalin and leaders of all alliance parties for their support.
Later, AIADMK candidates former Law Minister C.Ve.Shanmugam and the party’s former Ramanathapuram district secretary R. Dharmar, accompanied by top party leaders O.Panneerselvam, Edappadi K.Palaniswami and senior leaders filed their papers before the Returning Officer.
Three DMK candidates–Party Legal Wing Secretary R.Girirajan, Thanjavur North District Unit Secretary S.Shanmugasundaram and and Namakkal East Unit District Secretary KRN RajeshKumar–have already filed their nomination papers on April 27. Rajesh Kumar has been re-nominated for the second time.
Of the total six seats that would fall vacant on June 29, the DMK chose to contest in three seats and allotted one to its ally, Congress, while the AIADMK could win the remaining two seats easily.
The filing of nominations for the June 10 biennial elections to fill six Rajya Sabha seats began on May 24 with the issuing of the notification. The last date for filing of nominations is tomorrow and the scrutiny will take place the next day (June one).
The last date for withdrawal is June three and the polling, if necessary, will be held on June 10 from 09:00 am to 04:00 pm. The Counting of votes will be taken up on June 10 and the election process shall be completed on June 13.
The DMK and its allies, which has a combined strength of 159 MLAs, including 18 from Congress, in the 234-member Assembly, can easily win four seats and the AIADMK Front (75 MLAs) has enough strength to win the remaining two seats.
While releasing the election schedule for 57 seats in 15 states, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said the term of office of six members –three each from the DMK and the AIADMK–elected from Tamil Nadu is due to expire on June 29.
The six members are T.K.S. Elangovan, R.S. Bharathi, K.R.N. Rajeshkumar (all DMK), A. Navaneethakrishnan, A. Vijayakumar and S.R. Balasubramoniyan (all AIADMK). AIADMK’s former allies, the PMK and the BJP, which have five and four MLAs respectively, have announced their support to the AIADMK for the RS polls.
