With just having least number of days left for filing nominations to replace the six Rajya Sabha seats of Tamil Nadu that are due to expire in April, the ruling ADMK party and the opposition DMK party have been gearing up the negotiations with the allied parties to finalize the list of the candidates who would be stepping into the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament.

Both ADMK and DMK can comfortably send three candidates each through the current strength of the parties in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. As we reported earlier, the two Dravidian parties will be vying to award the tickets to their own party members. However, the leaders of ADMK and DMK are also been burdened with the lobbies from the allied parties and its leaders to grab the tickets. 

Earlier, the DMDK party led by Vijayakanth has lobbied ADMK's central leadership to provide Rajya Sabha ticket by citing that the party has been allying with ADMK in 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, local body polls and it would stay in alliance in upcoming legislative elections. A.C.Shanmugam, the chief of New Justice Party has also been speaking to the ADMK and expressed his Rajya Sabha bid. Adding to the lobby queue, chief of Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) G.K. Vasan has now begun his lobby to retain his base in Delhi.

The reports have stated that TMC has been watering the hope that the ADMK would bestow one Rajya Sabha ticket to Vasan's camp. Our sources say that Vasan has reached out to ADMK leaders directly to press them towards reserving the berth in the Upper house. Vasan observes deep alliance in ADMK in the state and with BJP in the Center through which he could lobby for the prospect of reviving his base in the national politics.

Vasan's campaign for the upper house has come at a crucial time when the senior leaders of ADMK have been stressing the party's chiefs to keep its candidates on the fray for the three Rajya Sabha seats. Most of the senior ministers of ADMK told that the party should contest in all the three seats and it mustn't accept the lobby from the allied parties. The ministers stated that the party has one MP in Lok Sabha and if it allocates tickets for the allied parties in Rajya Sabha polls, it would lose its base in the Center.

According to the reports, senior ADMK leaders M Thambidurai and KP Munusamy have been pressing for the party's ticket along with AC Shanmugam, the founder of the New Justice Party. Thambidurai was the former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker and Munusamy is the current joint coordinator of the ADMK party while Shanmugam's party observes an alliance with the ADMK. Earlier, Shanmugam contested in the recent Vellore Lok Sabha polls and he was defeated by the rival DMK and the reports say that these three names are on the top of the table with the strong possibilities of entering the Rajya Sabha.

According to the notification of Election Commission, 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 MPs are becoming vacant. 

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