AIADMK leads race for six RS seats from TN

On the day of filing nominations,another DMDK MLA met Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa. K Pandiarajan,who won from Virudhunagar Assembly constituency,called on Jaya at her office — a move that was widely speculated for the last couple of days. Pandiarajan,however,maintained that he had met the CM to apprise her about the developmental needs of his constituency — exactly the same reason cited by six other rebel DMDK MLAs.

After emerging as the second biggest party with 29 MLAs,DMDK chief Vijayakant was confident of sending his brother-in-law L K Sudheesh to the RS with the help of other parties. However,rebellion by seven members — they have neither quit officially nor have they been expelled — seems to have put paid to the plans.

The DMK is yet to put together the numbers to send its president M Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi for yet another term. It has 23 MLAs and can hope to win one seat if either the DMDK or the CPM (10 MLAs) is willing to offer support. Vijayakant is yet to reveal his strategy,and the CPM hasn’t decided on the matter so far. The clear loser is the CPI,which floundered a chance to send a member to the RS. With eight MLAs,the party lobbied hard with the AIADMK for support. The contest within the party was between D Raja and D Pandian.

The tenure of state Congress unit president B S Gnanadesikan is coming to an end,but the party cannot even consider the option of presenting a candidate. While it had 34 MLAs in the last House,the numbers have shrunk to five. Same is the case with the PMK,which has only three MLAs.