Jaishankar likely to get AIADMK ticket to RS

According to sources close to Deputy Chief Minister, O Panneerselvam, the BJP is putting pressure on the AIADMK to allot one of the three Rajya Sabha seats, that is getting vacant by the end of July, to Jaishankar in order to stop him contesting in any election.

The party leaders seem to have heeded to the pressure and are now prepared to give the seat to the BJP, sources said. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Cabinet, former Secretary of External Affairs Department, Jaishankar, was made the Minister for External Affairs.

As Jaishankar was made a Minister without him winning in the election, he has to become a Minister of either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha within six months. That there was no representation of the State in Modi’s ministry has also been criticised.

To quash this critique and to get a seat for Jaishankar, BJP is pressurising AIADMK to allot one of the three seats to him. According to Rajya Sabha data, the period of four AIADMK MPs is ending on July 24 and as AIADMK had lost some of the MLA seats to the DMK, it can officially elect only three MPs to the Rajya Sabha, this year.

Out of the three seats, AIADMK had already promised a seat to PMK but according to AIADMK sources, PMK is unlikely to get the seat this year. Sources said that on Saturday, State Law Minister CV Shanmugam, met PMK Founder, S Ramadoss, at his house and invited him for an Iftar party hosted by the AIADMK. According to sources, while inviting Ramadoss, Shanmugam conveyed Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami’s message to him that as the BJP is pressurising their party for a Rajya Sabha seat, they cannot offer the Rajya Sabha seat as promised by them, earlier, and in exchange, another deal was struck.

Sources added that party old horses including Thambidurai, Gokula Indira and Maithreyan have already started demanding the party convenors to allocate them a seat.

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Jaishankar who created a Twitter account only on Saturday, seems to be following in the footsteps of his predecessor Sushma Swaraj, as he has already begun marking his presence on social media. On Sunday, interestingly, he posted a tweet in Tamil on the ongoing crisis over the three-language formula drafted in the national educational policy, which read, “The Central government will finalise the draft national educational policy only after obtaining views from the people. Government will take steps to develop and encourage all Indian languages. Government has no intention to force any language.”