Chennai:
The nominations of seven Rajya Sabha candidates, including that of Vaiko, were accepted Tuesday, putting to rest doubts over the prospects of the MDMK leader following his conviction in a sedition case last week.
The nominations of two candidates from AIADMK and three from DMK, besides PMK’s Anbumani Ramadoss were accepted following scrutiny, said Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary K Srinivasan.
Srinivasan is the Returning Officer for the biennial elections to the six seats from Tamil Nadu on July 18.
A press note from Srinivasan said four nominations were rejected.
The nominations accepted were that of N Chandrasekaran and Muhammedjan (both AIADMK) and DMK’s P Wilson, M Shanmugam and N R Elango.
As part of their pre-poll agreement ahead of the April 18 Lok Sabha polls, the ruling AIADMK had agreed to allot one Rajya Sabha seat for ally PMK.
Similarly, opposition DMK allotted a Rajya Sabha seat to MDMK, under an “unwritten agreement”, that Vaiko alone will be the candidate.
However, following Vaiko’s conviction in the sedition case, there were doubts about his nomination being accepted.
On Monday, Vaiko said he had asked DMK president M K Stalin to choose an alternative if his nomination was not accepted.
Subsequently, the DMK fielded Elango as a back-up.
Vaiko said he had been informed that Elango, a senior advocate, would withdraw the nomination if the former’s papers were taken.
Vaiko was on July 5 convicted by a special court here in a 2009 sedition case and was sentenced to undergo simple Imprisonment for a year.
Following a plea, the sentence was subsequently stayed for a month to allow him file an appeal against the order.
Both the ruling AIADMK and DMK can send three MPs each to the Upper House by virtue of their respective strengths in the state assembly.
The AIADMK has 123 MLAs and the DMK 100 members in the 234-member Assembly with two vacancies.
DMK-ally Congress has seven legislators, while the IUML has one. AMMK leader T T V Dhinakaran is an Independent member.
A candidate needs 34 votes to get elected.
