All 6 candidates to be elected unopposed to RS

CHENNAI: Six candidates, three from DMK, two from AIADMK and one from Congress, are set to be elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha as applications of all six candidates have been accepted and the applications of other seven independent candidates have been rejected.

According to the details provided by the state Assembly, nominations of three DMK candidates S Kalyanasundaram, R Girirajan and KRN Rajesh Kumar, two AIADMK candidates CVe Shanmugam and R Dharmar and Congress candidate P Chidambaram have been accepted and they will be elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha.

The nominations of seven independent candidates such as Agni Ramachandran, R Kandasamy, K Sundaramoorthy, S Devarajan, K Padmarajan, M Manmadan and TN Velmurugan Chozhaganar were rejected.

The six Rajya Sabha seats for Tamil Nadu is set to get vacant as the tenure of three DMK MPs TKS Elangovan, RS Bharathi and KRN Rajesh Kumar and three AIADMK candidates A Navaneetha Krishnan, SR Balasubramoniyan and A Vijayakumar will end on June 29, this year.

The filing of papers that commenced on May 24 ended on Tuesday following which the papers were scrutinized. The nomination papers of seven independent candidates were rejected.

However, as DMK captured power with a thumping majority, the ruling party gets an additional Rajya Sabha seat due to which AIADMK will get only two seats.

Among the four seats, DMK is contesting in three seats and one was given to its ally Congress. The nomination commenced on May 24 and ended on Tuesday following which the nominations were scrutinized.

In the scrutiny, only the nominations of political parties were accepted. Indirect election is held for Rajya Sabha in which elected MLAs will vote for electing Rajya Sabha candidates. Tamil Nadu has a total of 18 Rajya Sabha members and one third of the members will retire every two years.

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