Chennai: Ruling AIADMK candidates for Rajya Sabha election filed their nominations at the Secretariat today.
Former Minister Mohammed Jan and the party’s Mettur town secretary Chandrasekaran submitted their papers in the presence of Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and Minister K A Sengottaiyan.
Meanwhile, with uncertainty prevailing over MDMK general secretary Vaiko being able to contest the Rajya Sabha polls from Tamilnadu following his conviction in a sedition case, the DMK has fielded the party’s advocate N R Ilango as the standby candidate for the seat. He filed his nomination today for the post.
“Ilango has been picked by the party to be the standby candidate in case Vaiko’s papers are rejected tomorrow during scrutiny,” sources said.
Addressing mediapersons today, Vaiko said he is confident that his nomination would be accepted. “The RS seat to MDMK was alloted by DMK with the condition that only I must contest from it. It was an oral agreement. A day before the judgement was delivered, I met DMK chief M K Stalin and asked to prepare a standby candidate from DMK just in case the verdict is against me. Now legally I am eligible to contest and I am confident that my nomination will be accepted. If that happens I am informed that Ilango will withdraw his nomination,” he said.
Though Vaiko has been convicted and sentenced to only one year in prison, legal experts do not rule out the fact that sedition is a very serious offence.
The special court for MLAs and MPs has suspended the sentence for a month to allow him to go on appeal in the higher court. Since the DMK would be able to send three MPs to the Rajya Sabha given that it has 100 MLAs in the Tamilnadu Assembly, the party has decided to field Ilango as its candidate should Vaiko’s papers be rejected by the returning officer.
The move has not gone well with the MDMK cadres as they feel that even if Vaiko’s candidature is rejected, someone from their party only should be nominated.