Amid the speculations on finalizing the candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, the ADMK has on Monday announced its candidates through which the party has dotted up the anticipations and the lobbies that levied on its shoulders. 

The party has named former state minister KP Munusamy, former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambidurai, and former Union Minister and Chief of Tamil Maanila Congress GK Vasan as its candidates for the upper house of the Parliament. We have reported earlier that Thamidurai and Munusamy were on the fray of possible candidates. While it was strongly speculated that Rajini's closest aide and President of New Justice Party AC Shanmugam would be given a ticket to the Rajya Sabha, the ADMK's leadership has declined his candidacy and named GK Vasan as the final candidate.

Since Election Commission has issued the notification of the Rajya Sabha polls for six seats of Tamil Nadu last month, the ADMK party has come through the lobbies from the allied parties like DMDK, TMC, New Justice Party, and from the senior leaders of the ADMK who were vying to reserve a berth in the upper house. Unlike its rival DMK that named its candidates on March 1st, the ADMK was pedaling in the slow pace towards finalizing the candidates by having dozens on the fray. During the selection of the candidates, most of the senior leaders of ADMK had urged the party's leadership to decline the lobby from the allied parties and to name the candidates from its own camp. 

The senior leaders have cited that the party must enhance its presence in the parliament as it has only one MP in Lok Sabha. Along with that, the ADMK leaders have been approached by Vijayakanth led DMDK, Vasan's Tamil Maanila Congress, and AC Shanmugam's New Justice Party. After the multiple speculations, the ADMK has on Monday announced its candidates and the ruling party has declined the lobbies from DMDK and New Justice Party. Our sources say that Vasan is the surprise pick by the party and he observes close ties with the Central BJP party.

Thambidurai has served as Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker from 2014- 2019 and KP Munusamy has served as one of the senior ministers in Jayalalithaa's cabinet. Munusamy has backed current Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam when he revolted the party in 2017 shortly after the demise of Jayalalithaa. After Panneerselvam has merged with Edappadi Palaniswami, Munusamy has been named as the party's one of the joint coordinators. Along with the lobby from the allied parties, some of the senior party leaders including Vaidhyalingam, Vijila Sathyanand, Gokula Indira were vying to get a Rajya Sabha ticket. 

The final list of ADMK's candidates has come hours after the DMK candidates had filed their nominations to the returning officer. On Monday, the DMK candidates Tiruchi Siva, NR Elango, Anthiyur Selvaraj had filed the nominations in the presence of party's president Stalin and other senior leaders. The election for six seats of Tamil Nadu at the Rajya Sabha will be taking place on March 26th, 2020 and as we reported earlier, the DMK and ADMK can comfortably send three candidates each with the current strength in the assembly. As the parties had announced three candidates each, it's highly likely that they will be stepping into the Rajya Sabha without any polls.

Also read: TN Rajya Sabha polls: Here's the list of possible candidates of the ADMK party!