CHENNAI: Proving speculations true, the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam allotted the Rajya Sabha seat to alliance partner Congress. The announcement was made by party president and Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Wednesday (June 3).
The allocation comes at a time when speculations are rife that All India Professionals’ Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty may get the seat. It may be recalled that Chakravarty was among the most vocal proponent of a tie-up between Congress and TVK ahead of the Tamil Nadu Assembly election 2026.
He even called on Vijay at his residence at a time when the national party was preparing to hold seat-sharing talks. His comments did anger the then alliance leader DMK.
Incidentally, the demands from a section of Congress leaders to snap ties with the DMK and join hands with the TVK, helped the Congress drive a hard bargain during the seat-sharing talks. It eventually got 28 seats and a Rajya Sabha seat from the DMK.
The present vacancy is because AIADMK leader C Ve Shanmugam resigned the seat after getting elected from Mailam Assembly seat in the recent election. With 107 MLAs of its own, and support from alliance partners, the TVK was in a comfortable position to secure the seat.
Though the Congress won only five seats out of the 28 that it contested, that small number was worth its weight in gold after the elections returned a fractured mandate, with no party gaining the simple majority. In the earlier bargain with the DMK, it had cornered a Rajya Sabha seat.
But after extending support to the TVK to form government, it got two Cabinet positions: P Viswanathan as Higher Education Minister and S Rajesh Kumar as Tourism Minister. Now, it has cornered one more Rajya Sabha seat.
Thus, the party now has two ministers and two Upper House members in the bargain, whichis quite a leap for a party that is largely an also-ran in Tamil Nadu’s electoral politics.