Filinig of nomination for six Rajya Sabha seats that falls vacant in Tamilnadu ends today. The election was being held to fill up the vacancies following the retirement of five members--T Rathinavel, V Maitreyan, K B Arjunan, R Lakshmanan (all AIADMK), D Raja (CPI)- and due to the resignation of DMK's Kanimozhi following her election to the Lok Sabha. With the issuance of the notification, filing of nominations opened 1 July.
The last date for filing nominations is tomorrow. Scrutiny would take place the next day and the last date for withdrawals is 11 July. Elections, if necessary, would be held on 18 July and the counting would be taken up the same day. The DMK on Monday announced its candidates for two of three seats it could contest. As per an earlier agreement, DMK allotted one set to MDMK.MDMK general secretary Vaiko is the third candidate.
The ruling AIADMK has announced A Mohammed John and N Chandrasekaran as its candidates to contest in the Rajya Sabha elections. Out of the three, it has alloted one seat to its alliance party PMK, as per a pre-poll pact. PMK's youth wing secretary Anbumani Ramadoss will contest in this seat. It looks likely that all six from Tamilnadu would be elected unopposed.
