Rajya Sabha elections: Vaiko, Anbumani among six candidates elected unopposed from Tamil Nadu

With the election of these MPs, the strength of DMK along with its alliance would increase to seven from the current four in the parliament. For AIADMK, the number of MPs would decrease from 12 to 11 in the Upper House.

The tenure of sitting Rajya Sabha MPs from Tamil Nadu, V Maitrayen, R Lakshmanan, T Rathinavel, KR Arjunan (all four from the AIADMK), M. Kanimozhi (DMK), and D Raja (CPI) will come to an end this month.

The scrutiny of the nomination was held on July 9th and a press note from Secretary Srinivasan said four nominations have been rejected.

The AIADMK and the DMK allotted one Rajya Sabha seat each to allies PMK and MDMK, respectively as part of pre-poll alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Just a few days after DMK announced its candidates, tension prevailed in its camp as MDMK’s general secretary Vaiko was sentenced to one-year imprisonment by a special court in Chennai in a sedition case dating back to 2009. Though the sentence does not disqualify Vaiko under the Representation of People’s Act, DMK nominated the fourth candidate as a precautionary measure. However, on Tuesday Vaiko’s nomination got accepted and the reserved candidate N R Elango withdrew his nomination.