Dr V Maitreyan, the AIADMK’s face in New Delhi, has been cold shouldered by the party leadership by not nominating him again to the Rajya Sabha. The AIADMK announced on Saturday names of two party veterans for the biennial election to the upper house to be held on July 18.
Sixty four-year-old Maitreyan, a medical oncologist, was close to former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who nimunated him to Rajya Sabha as the party’s poin man in New Delhi. His term is coming to an end next week and Dr Maitreyan had told this paper that the new power equations in the party would deny him a seat. He was not to be seen anywhere during the Lok Sabha election in April in which the AIADMK-led front was uprooted by the DMK and allies.
A Mohammed John from Vellore and N Chandrasekaran from Mettur are the nominees of the AIADMK. Their names were disclosed by the party leadership on Saturday. Mohammed John is a former minister in the Government headed by Jayalalithaa (2011-16) and is being fielded as the minority face of the party.
The AIADMK is eligible to send three nominees to Rajya Sabha based on the strength of the party in the current legislature. But the party has allocated one seat to the PMK, its alliance partner for the Lok Sabha election. The PMK is likely to nominate Anbumani Ramadoss as the party candidate.
P Wilson, a senior lawyer and M Shanmugham, a trade union leader are the nominees of the DMK. Though the DMK could send three nominees to the Rajya Sabha, the party is sponsoring Vaiko, the MDMK leader as its third representative. This is as per the agreement worked out during the seat allocation for the Lok Sabha election. Vaiko, the LTTE’s India face , would raise in parliament the issues of Tamil Eelam and incidents of violation of secularism.
Though there were reports that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be nominated from Tamil Nadu, the talks between the DMK and the Congress were grounded midway through. Another person whose Rajya Sabha ambitions got shattered is D Raja of the CPI who was interested in another term in the House.
But sources in CPI said Raja is likely to be appointed as the general secretary of the CPI since the incumbent S Sudhakara Reddy is retiring on health grounds.