Chennai, May 16: DMK has retained K R N Rajeshkumar, who was elected unopposed to the upper house last year in a bypoll and named two other candidates for the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha.
The party also announced allotment of a seat to Congress.
Thanjai Su Kalyanasundaram, a party veteran and district secretary of Thanjavur (North) district and party’s legal wing secretary R Girirajan are the two other DMK candidates, DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin announced in a party release. One seat has been earmarked for ally Congress, the release said.
Ahead of the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly election, DMK had informally agreed to give a Rajya Sabha seat to the Congress.
Of the six vacancies from the State, the DMK and the main opposition AIADMK have three retiring members each.
DMK’s T K S Elangovan, R S Bharathi and K R N Rajeshkumar are the three retirees. AIADMK’s A Navaneethakrishnan, S R Balasubramoniyan and A Vijayakumar are the three MPs, whose term of office would also expire.
The main opposition AIADMK, which now has 5 Rajya Sabha MPs is expected to announce its candidates to fill the other two current vacancies. Its strength is set to slide to four. In the AIADMK camp as well, there are a string of contenders for the two RS seats, including former Ministers, party sources said.
On 12 May, the Election Commission announced biennial elections as the terms of 57 Rajya Sabha members from 15 States were due to expire during June-August 2022.