The Indian National Congress on Thursday, March 5, released their list of candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections, naming Christopher Tilak as the candidate from Tamil Nadu. The party also announced senior advocate and four-time MP AM Singhvi as a candidate from Telangana.
M Christopher Tilak is the secretary of All India Congress Cìommittee (AICC) and is the party in charge for Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. He has also served the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee's (TNCC) SC/ST wing and the AICC youth wing.
The party also made announcements for four other candidates across five states, hours before the closing of nominations. As per a report by The Hindu, this includes Phulo Devi Netam from Chhattisgarh, Karamvir Singh Boudh from Haryana, Anurag Sharma from Himachal Pradesh, and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Vem Narender Reddy from Telangana.
Tilak was a hockey player and is reportedly a close associate of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. The nomination comes even as the Congress concluded talks with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on March 4, Wednesday, regarding seat sharing ahead of the Tamil Nadu state assembly elections.
The Election Commission, on February 18, announced biennial elections for 37 seats of the Rajya Sabha in 10 states. Seven seats in Maharashtra, six seats in Tamil Nadu, five seats each in West Bengal and Bihar, four seats in Odisha, three seats in Assam, two seats each in Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Haryana, and one seat in Himachal Pradesh are being vacated this year. The poll notification came on February 26.
The voting is set to take place on March 16 with counting set for 5pm on the same day.