Rajya Sabha polls: DMK names three candidates, allots one seat to Kamal Haasan’s party

Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK on Wednesday, 28 May, announced that it would contest four out of the six Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant from the state, biennial polls for which are to be held on june 19. The party allotted one seat to ally, actor-politician Kamal Haasan-led Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM).

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, also the president of the ruling DMK, said in a press release issued in Chennai that the allocation of one seat to MNM was in keeping with an electoral pact with that party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Following this, the MNM executive committee on Wednesday, May 28, passed a resolution nominating Haasan as the party’s candidate for the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls. The actor's political journey began in 2018 with a vision of alternative governance.

The DMK re-nominated its incumbent member in the Upper House, senior advocate P. Wilson and named two others—the party’s Salem-based leader S.R. Sivalingam and Ruqayya Malik alias Kavignar Salma, a poet, writer and party office-bearer.

Six Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu will retire on July 24, including PMK's Anbumani Ramadoss and MDMK top leader Vaiko. Of the six seats DMK is in a position to win four seats and the main opposition party, AIADMK, can win two seats with the support from allies, including the BJP.