By IANS,
Chennai : Six candidates – three from DMK, two from AIADMK and one from the Congress – are set to be elected unopposed in the June 17 Rajya Sabha elections from Tamil Nadu.
Congress candidate and sitting member Sudarshan Nachiappan filed his nomination Monday in the presence of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and several other DMK and Congress leaders.
Filing of nominations closed Monday at 3 p.m. Apart from the six candidates from political parties, three independents have also filed their nominations, though they do not bear any signature of assembly member, as required for a valid nomination.
Scrutiny of the nominations will be done Tuesday and the last date for withdrawal of nominations is June 10.
The two AIADMK candidates – P.H. Manoj Pandian and K.V. Ramalingam – filed their nominations last Friday while the three DMK candidates – K.P. Ramalingam, T.M. Selvaganapaty and Sankarankoil Thangavel – had filed their nominations last Wednesday.
While the AIADMK can win one seat on its own, it hopes to win the second one with the support of its allies, the MDMK, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
The party-wise position in the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly is DMK 99 members, AIADMK 57, Congress 36, PMK 18, CPI-M nine, CPI six, MDMK 3, VCK 2, and DMDK 1. There is one Independent, one unattached member, and one nominated.