NDA and UPA improves RS tally as 2 members from AIADMK and DMK elected unopposed

Chennai: After Opposition DMK's stand by candidate N R Elango withdrew his nomination papers yesterday following acceptance of MDMK General Secretary Vaiko's papers, all the six 

candidates in fray for the July 18 biennial elections to Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu, were declared elected unopposed today. 

As the last date for withdrawals ended at 1500 hrs on Thursday, Assembly Secretary K Srinivasan, who is also the Returning Officer, announced that the six candidates--two each from the ruling AIADMK and the Opposition DMK, and one each from the PMK and MDMK--were elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament. 

Those declared elected were AIADMK's former Minister A Mohammed John and N Chandrasekaran, M Shanmugham, General Secretary of LPF and advocate P Wilson (both DMK) and former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss of PMK, which was allotted one seat by the AIADMK, and Mr Vaiko. 

Mr Srinivasan also handed over the election certificates to the winners.Later, the two victorious AIADMK candidates and Dr Anbumani met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at his chamber and sought his blessings. 

There were concerns about Mr Vaiko's papers being rejected in the wake of a Special court convicting him for one year in a sedition case.

Since his nominations were accepted and Mr Elango withdrawing his papers, Mr Vaiko, who was allotted one seat as per the seat sharing pact by the DMK, re-entered Parliament after a gap of 23 years following his election.Mr Vaiko had earlier served as a DMK Rajya Sabha member from 1978 

to 1996.

The elections were necessitated to fill up the vacancies caused by the retirement of five sitting members--T Rathinavel, V Maitreyan, K B Arjunan, R Lakshmanan (all AIADMK), D Raja of the CPI--and due to the resignation of DMK's Kanimozhi following her election to the Lok Sabha.(UNI)