TVK chief Vijay allocates lone Rajya Sabha seat to Congress

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and TVK chief C Joseph Vijay on Wednesday announced that his party would allocate the lone Rajya Sabha seat to Congress that was vacant after AIADMK leader C Ve Shanmugam resigned from the Upper House.

Shanmugam quit the seat following his victory from the Mailam assembly constituency in the recent Assembly election.

"As Rajya Sabha election is to be held in Tamil Nadu on 18th of this month, a seat has been allocated to the All India Congress party, which is part of the alliance led by TVK in Tamil Nadu," Vijay said in a statement.


TVK's decision to offer the lone Rajya Sabha seat to Congress came against the backdrop of key meetings between national party leaders, including Congress Tamil Nadu in-charge Girish Chodankar and former union finance minister P Chidambaram at the Secretariat.

After holding a meeting with CM Vijay, Chodankar told reporters that the Congress' presence will be strengthened in the Upper House by getting the Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu.

Election Commission sources told PTI that the nominations began on June 1 and will go on till June 8. Further, the scrutiny of nominations would take place on June 9. The last date of withdrawal is scheduled for June 11.

The RS poll will be held on June 18 from 9 am to 4 pm. The counting will begin on the same date from 5 pm onwards.

Following the allocation of a Rajya Sabha seat to Congress, Chodankar said that the party's candidate for the Upper House election would be finalised by the central election authority of the Congress.

Speaking to ANI, he said the Congress high command would take a decision on the candidate for the seat allotted to the party.

"Candidates' names are finalised only by the central election authority of the Congress party. The moment this seat is announced as a Congress seat, then we will request our central election committee to decide on our candidate," he said.