While, on one hand, the ruling party of Tamil Nadu ADMK has been circled with its allied parties on finalizing its candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, on the other hand, the opposition DMK party has dotted up the speculations on Sunday after announcing the names of the three candidates who, with the DMK's current strength in the assembly, would be having comfortable entry to the upper house of the Parliament.

On Sunday, DMK President MK Stalin, in the sideline of observing his 67th birthday, has released an official statement in which he announced the names of the candidates who would fill up the Rajya Sabha seats next month. As per his statement, Stalin named Tiruchi Siva - the incumbent party's MP, NR Elango, and Anthiyur Selvaraj as the party's candidates. 

Of these three, Tiruchi Siva is the sitting MP in Rajya Sabha and with the current prospect, Siva would be stepping into the upper house for the fourth time as a DMK MP. Previously, he was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2002, 2007, and 2014 elections. Recently, Tiruchi Siva has conferred with the best parliamentarian award and he received the honor from India's Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu. He grabbed the nation's attention after he introduced the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill and it was passed by the Parliament.

Anthiyur Selvaraj, who is the surprise pick, is currently serving as the secretary of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare organization. He previously served as Handloom Minister from 1996 to 2001 in Karunanidhi's cabinet. The reports say that the party has awarded a ticket to Selvaraj, who belongs to the scheduled caste, with the view of enhancing its stronghold in the Kongu belt that is in favor of ADMK. The third candidate is NR Elango, who was on the fray of the possible candidates since the election announcement. Elango has been one of the legal advisers of the party and he was DMK's counsel when the party filed a TANSI land acquisition case against ADMK's Jayalalithaa.

With the current assembly strength, both ADMK and DMK, with no hindrance, can send three candidates each to Rajya Sabha. As we reported earlier, both Dravidian parties are vying to award tickets to their own party members and DMK has picked the candidates from its own camp without letting the lobby from the opposition parties. However, the ruling ADMK party is yet to name its candidates as the party has been stormed by the alliance including Vijayakanth's DMDK and Vasan's TMC for a Rajya Sabha berth. 

Last Tuesday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the schedule for the elections to 55 Rajya Sabha seats in 17 states that are due to get expired in April and of those 55 seats, Tamil Nadu accounts for six seats. According to the notification of ECI, filing the nominations for these six seats would begin on March 6th and conclude on March 13th after which the filed nominations will be scrutinized and the final list of candidates would be released on March 16 and the final date of withdrawing the nominations is March 18. The polls would take place on March 26. Currently, the ADMK and its alliance have 11 Rajya Sabha MPs, of which four MPs are due to retire in April and the DMK led coalition has seven MPs in the upper house, of which the seats of two MP seats are becoming vacant. 

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Rajya Sabha elections: This TN leader lobbies for ADMK's ticket!                                             

Rajya Sabha polls: Here is the list of possible candidates from ADMK and DMK!