Nearly two months after securing a landslide victory in the Tamil Nadu assembly polls, the DMK is now heading into witnessing a strong race within the party for securing a berth in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper house of the parliament, as three seats of Tamil Nadu in the chamber has been left vacant. Several leaders in the party eye to win the nomination and to get elected to the parliament and indeed, to get into the national politics. 

Though DMK can leniently win these three seats with its current strength in the state assembly, the major challenge and ordeal for the party would be finalizing the candidates for three seats - looking for exact three from hundreds. According to reports, the Election Commission will most likely notify the by-elections for three seats in July and the second line leaders are locking horns with the district secretaries in winning a seat. 

The sources in the know say that the DMK leadership has been piled up with hundreds of applications from the party members to win the ticket for Rajya Sabha. The applications were majorly from the people who hadn't won the ticket in the state assembly polls and people who had contested and lost in the assembly polls. 

As more leaders aim for a ticket in Rajya Sabha which would give them a hassle-free political arena with a term of six years and they also can get a prospect for national politics, the leadership would face an acid test in finalizing the three candidates. Speaking to a news agency, a senior leader of the party said that the leadership will consider representation to various communities, regions, and the experience of the leaders before deciding the candidates. 

As per the electoral norm, to win a Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu, a candidate must secure votes from 34 MLAs. The DMK currently has 133 MLAs of its own and 26 MLAs of its alliance parties. With this strength, DMK can win the three seats. According to reports, the top DMK leaders in the race for Rajya Sabha include party's deputy general secretary Subbulakhsmi Jagadeesan, former minister N Suresh Rajan, and former MLA M Austin. 

Apart from them, a dozen of district secretaries, who were not given tickets in the assembly elections, are aiming for the Rajya Sabha seats. After winning these three seats, the DMK's strength in Rajya Sabha would increase to 10 while ADMK's strength will come down to six. The elections are to be held after three seats, that were occupied by the ADMK candidates, had fallen vacant and by-elections will likely be held next month.

Three ADMK candidates were Mohammedjan, KP Munusamy, and R Vaithilingam. While Mohammedjan was passed away, the other two had resigned their posts of Rajya Sabha MP after they had got elected to the current state assembly under the ADMK ticket. Mohammedjan's tenure runs till July 2025 while the terms of Vaithilingam and Munusamy run till June 2022 and April 2026 respectively. 

Meanwhile, DMK will also have one more jackpot in its store as it will gain four more Rajya Sabha seats by next year with the terms of ADMK MPs including SR Balasubramaniam and Navaneethakrishnan will end in June next year. According to reports, DMK Rajya Sabha MP Wilson said that there won't be any difficulties in conducting the by-elections as they will be held in the assembly with MLAs casting their votes.