Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu for the first time.
Mr. Chidambaram, former Tamil Nadu Law Minister C. Ve. Shanmugam (AIADMK) and four others were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on Friday evening.
The Congress veteran was elected to the Lok Sabha from Sivaganga on multiple occasions. However, he withdrew from direct electoral politics in 2014 and entered the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra two years later. His son and Sivaganga MP Karti P. Chidambaram received his election certificate on his behalf.
Friday was the last date for withdrawal of nominations for the biennial elections. Since no one else had filed valid nominations other than the six candidates fielded by the recognised political parties, they were declared elected unopposed.
Three candidates fielded by the DMK — R. Girirajan, S. Kalyanasundaram and K.R.N. Rajeshkumar — were also declared elected. Mr. Rajeshkumar is being elected for the second time. He had first entered the Rajya Sabha last September against the vacancy caused by the resignation of R. Vaithilingam of the AIADMK following his election to the Assembly in May 2021.
R. Dharmar, the AIADMK’s other candidate, will enter the Rajya Sabha for the first time.
The outgoing Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu, whose tenure is nearing completion, are A. Navaneethakrishnan, A. Vijayakumar and S.R. Balasubramoniyan of the AIADMK and R.S. Bharathi and T.K.S. Elangovan of the DMK.
