The June 27 Rajya Sabha election for six seats from Tamil Nadu took an interesting turn on Saturday with MK Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi by his third wife Rajathi Ammal, filing nomination as the party candidate. With Kanimozhi entering the fray, there are six contestants from Tamil Nadu.
The CPI, which is holding its State committee meeting late Saturday, is likely to announce the name of D Raja as their candidate. The DMDK, the main Opposition party is meeting on Sunday to decide the course of action.
The suspense over the outcome of the Rajya Sabha election grew manifold by Saturday evening. “Karunanidhi would not have allowed Kanimozhi to file her nomination on Saturday unless he is sure of her victory. This shows that the DMK chief has an ace up his sleeve which he will play by the last date for withdrawing the nomination. In all likelihood, we may see the CPI candidate withdrawing his nomination to facilitate Kanimozhi’s victory,” a veteran commentator who knows Karunanidhi for the last four decades told The Pioneer. He also made it clear that Vijayakanth would not field a DMDK nominee as he has no numbers.
As reported by The Pioneer earlier, the Rajya Sabha election from Tamil Nadu could be a prelude to the electoral alliance being planned by the DMK chief for the 2014 lok Sabha elections. If the CPI candidate withdraws in favour of Kanimozhi, it is an indication that the CPI has been assured of an additional lok Sabha seat by Karunanidhi. “That could be the reason why the CPI central leadership is insisting that Raja would be its nominee much to the chagrin of the State leadership. Pandian, the State secretary would not be a party for such an arrangement,” said the commentator.
If the DMDK does not nominate a candidate, the nominees polling 30 votes each will get elected. The DMK has only 23 members in the Tamil Nadu House. In the eventuality of the number of contestants going up to seven, each candidate requires 30 votes for a smooth sailing in the election. The DMK has been assured of the five votes of the Congress.
The AIADMK with 151 members can ensure the election of four of its members without any hassle. But the party has fielded five candidates for the election. The seven member DMDK block which has revolted against party chief Vijayakanth will vote for the AIADMK nominees. In normal course, each of the winning candidate requires to poll 34 votes. The AIADMK block has mobilised 162 votes inclusive of those from the DMDK, AIFB, PT and MMK. The party will be left with 26 votes after electing its four sure candidates. If the party could bring in another four votes from the DMDK and the left with 18 members cast their votes, Jayalalithaa can sweep the five seats.
Now that Kanimozhi has filed her nomination, it is going to be a tough game for D Raja, the most likely candidate of the CPI. Everything depends on the move of the DMDK which is yet to decide its course of action.
Meanwhile, the DMK made a last ditch attempt to seek the favour of the DMDK by deputing party spokesman TKS Elangovan to meet Sudheesh, the brother-in-law of Vijayakanth, the party chief. Party leaders said Elangovan called on Sudheesh to express condolences over the passing away of the latter’s mother-in-law. But it is obvious that the meeting was to seek the cooperation of the DMDK to get Kanimozhi re-elected as the Rajya Sabha member. For Karunanidhi, it has become a matter of prestige to ensure the victory of his favourite daughter in this election.
The Congress support for the DMK became clear on Friday with Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan’s visit to Karunanidhi’s residence on Friday. Though the Minister told reporters that her visit was to wish Karunanidhi a happy birthday (the DMK chief celebrated his 90th birthday on June 3), the visit was ostensibly to offer the Congress support to Kanimozhi.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday said the cooperation between the DMK and the Congress exposed the double-standards and hypocrisy of Karunanidhi towards the causes of the Sri lankan Tamils. “Karunanidhi quit the UPA last March claiming that the Congress was soft towards the Sri lankan Government’s pogrom of lankan Tamils. But he has been maintaining silence over the Union Government’s decision to impart training to Sri lankan military officials in India’s defence establishments,” said Jayalalithaa.
The DMDK, led by Vijayakanth, is meeting on Sunday. Party chief whip Chandrakumar on Saturday reportedly bought a set of nomination papers for the election from the State Secretariat. But that is being seen as a ploy to keep the media guessing. The numbers in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and the move of Jayalalithaa to nominate five candidates has taken June 27 election from Tamil Nadu to a nail biting finish.