Chennai: In a surprise move, the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu on Monday nominated former Union Minister GK Vasan, who heads the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), to the Rajya Sabha in the upcoming biennial elections to the Upper House.
Besides, former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambi Durai and former State Minister KP Munusamy, both belonging to the AIADMK, have been announced as candidates for the polls.
Vasan, a former Congressman, had quit the Congress, after having served as minister in the UPA Cabinet, and revived the TMC in November 2014. The TMC, originally founded by his father GK Moopanar in 1996, was merged with the Congress later and Vasan was appointed president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.
In the last Lok Sabha elections, Vasan had joined the AIADMK-BJP alliance saying he had politically traversed far away from the Congress. His party was allotted one seat, which it lost.
“Vasan had managed to get a top BJP leader to put pressure on our leadership to give him a Rajya Sabha berth. When we signed the alliance deal with the TMC last year, we had not committed to any representation for the party in the Upper House.
It is sad that our leadership was unable to resist the pressure from the BJP, which is in power in the Centre,” said a second line AIADMK leader.
The AIADMK, however, refused to heed to the demand of actor Vijayakant’s DMDK for a Rajya Sabha nomination.
