Parties file RS nominations, only six of 14 to be accepted

Chennai: Candidates of DMK, its allies Congress and DMDK, as well as AIADMK and its ally PMK filed nomination for Rajya Sabha election on Thursday, the last day for filing the papers.DMK candidates for Rajya Sabha, Tiruchi N Siva and J Constandine Ravindran, Congress candidate Christohper Tilak and DMDK's L K Sudhish filed the papers in the presence of chief minister M K Stalin. AIADMK candidate M Thambidurai and its ally PMK president R Anbumani filed the papers in the presence of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami. The nomination papers were submitted to Tamil Nadu assembly additional secretary R Shanthi, the returning officer for the Rajya Sabha election.
Congress had handpicked AICC secretary Christopher Tilak alias Christopher Manickam as the party's candidate, while DMDK chose party's treasurer L K Sudhish as party's nominee. Christopher Tilak, accompanied by AICC in charge for TN Girish Chodankar and TNCC chief K Selvaperunthagai filed nomination. He is party in charge of four northeast states - Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. Shortly afterwards, Sudhish accompanied by party general secretary Premallatha Vijayakant filed his nomination papers. "Our parliament entry should have happened years back. It is happening after a delay, but we are happy,'' Premallatha told reporters.For PMK, Sowmiya Anbumani, too, filed nomination as an alternative candidate for her husband Anbumani. A total of 14 candidates, including K Padmarajan, who holds the record for losing the most elections he contested, filed nominations. However, the candidature of only six candidates, such as Tiruchi Siva, Constantine Ravindran, Thambidurai, Anbumani, Sudhish and Christopher Tilak, is set to be accepted.