The AIADMK has announced its nominees for the Rajya Sabha polls to be held from the state on July 18. On Saturday, the party said it would be fielding former Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare Minister Mohammad John. The former Ranipet MLA also serves as the Deputy Secretary of the party's Minority Welfare Wing. N Chandrashekar, who serves as the party secretary for Mettur, Salem has also been nomination as Rajya Sabha candidate.
"We inform that as per the pre-poll arrangement for the recently-held Lok Sabha elections, the one remaining seat has been assigned to the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK)," the party's press release reiterated on Saturday.
The announcement came after a meeting of the party leadership at their headquarters in Chennai's Royapettah.
AIADMK MPs T Rathinavel, V Maitreyan, KR Arjunan and R Lakshmanan will be retiring from their six-year term on July 24 along with D Raja of the CPI. DMK’s Kanimozhi was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Thoothukudi parliamentary constituency in the recently-held General Elections and her seat too is up for polls.
The AIADMK chose not to renominate any of its Rajya Sabha MPs, including veteran party leader V Maithreyan who had aligned himself with O Panneerselvam soon after he rebelled against the VK Sasikala faction in the wake of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s death.
Barring the four retiring MPs, the AIADMK currently has eight Rajya Sabha MPs and one Lok Sabha MP— OP Raveendranath Kumar (son of Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam).
On Monday, the DMK nominated advocate P Wilson and M Shanmugam, General Secretary of the party's Labour Progressive Front (LPF). As per the pre-poll agreement, the third seat will be given to MDMK chief Vaiko. On Friday, the 75-year-old leader was convicted in a sedition case dating back to 2009. However, legal experts have opined that this would not be an impediment to his return to the Rajya Sabha after 15 years.