Amid the growing speculations over finalizing the candidatures for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu, the ruling ADMK and the opposition DMK parties have been burdening up with the lobby from the allied parties that are queueing against the Dravidian parties to grab the ticket for the upper house of the Indian parliament.

Earlier this week, the Election Commission of India has announced the schedule for the elections to 55 Rajya Sabha seats in 17 states that are due to get expired in April and as per the schedule, the polls to fill these in the upper house of the Parliament will be held on March 26. Of those 55 seats, Tamil Nadu accounts for six seats. With the current strength in the legislative assembly, the ADMK and DMK can elect three members each with no hindrance and by having no elections. However, both parties have been packed with regional parties in their respective coalitions that have now been lobbying to award the Rajya Sabha seat.

On Friday, we reported that the DMDK party led by Vijayakanth and TMC party led by GK Vasan have been vying to reserve their berths in the Rajya Sabha and both the parties are negotiating with ADMK's leadership unit. While addressing the reporters on Friday in Trichy, DMDK's treasurer Premalatha Vijayakanth said that the party has been demanding the ADMK to award one Rajya Sabha ticket. By citing that the ADMK has assured the DMDK with one Rajya Sabha ticket during the formation of the alliance, Premalatha expressed that she hopes that the ADMK leaders would take a good decision.

The reports say that on Friday, senior DMDK leader LK Sutheesh had met with Chief Minister and ADMK leader Edappadi Palaniswami in his residence in Chennai and held talks with the Chief Minister to secure the assurance of a berth in Rajya Sabha. However, the Chief Minister hasn't disclosed any assertion to the DMDK leader. During this high time, Senior ADMK leader and State Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar has said that ADMK has made no agreements with the DMDK regarding the Rajya Sabha seat sharing. He stated that the party has only asserted to the PMK party led by Ramadoss for providing a Rajya Sabha seat and with that assertion, the ADMK has provided a ticket for Anbumani Ramadoss during the previous Rajya Sabha elections.

Jayakumar's statement has sent shockwaves to the DMDK party which has been in the ADMK alliance during 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the state rural local body elections and the minister's notion against the DMDK would be expected to cause aberrant developments in the alliance. Earlier, 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.

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