Rajya Sabha voting for six Tamil Nadu seats ends

CHENNAI: Voting for the suspense-filled Rajya Sabha poll on Thursday saw the participation of 231 MLAs, including AIADMK, DMK, DMDK, CPI and CPM by afternoon. The three PMK MLAs abstained from voting. 

Chief minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa, DMK chief M Karunanidhi, party treasurer M K Stalin and DMDK leader Vijayakanth took part in the polling to elect six nominees. There are seven contestants in the frayfor six seats falling vacant in July. "Upon completion of voting at 4pm, the returning officer for polls (A M P Jamaludeen) will write to the Election Commission of India seeking clearance for counting. It is tentatively fixed at 5pm," Tamil Nadu chief electoral officer Praveen Kumar said. 

The AIADMK has fielded four nominees, T Rathnavelu, R Lakshmanan, K R Arjunan and sitting MP V Maithreyan. The party also extends support to CPI nominee and sitting MP D Raja, after withdrawing its fifth nominee, Thangamuthu at the eleventh hour. DMK sitting MP Kanimozhi, an accused in the 2G scam, is also in the fray with the support of Congress, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi and Puthiya Tamilagam. The DMDK could not manage to drum up the required support for its nominee A R Elangovan. The party has only 22 MLAs, while another seven turned rebels and switched loyalty to Jayalalithaa's AIADMK. 

The open ballot system for RS polls introduced for the first time in the state, had some anxious moments for DMDK rebel MLAs. The members were mandated to show their ballot papers ahead of dropping in the ballot box. There was a mild flutter, when Senthamangalam MLA R Santhi was told to show her ballot paper twice, after DMDK polling agent and MLA L Venkatesan objected to her hiding the preferential vote and sought the attention of the observer. Madurai Central MLA R Sundararajan, who came with other rebels, Michael Rayappan and Tamil Azhagan, was reluctant initially to show his ballot paper. Lack of understanding on polling left a DMDK MLA Arun Subramaniam in a fix, but he was let off with a warning by election officials.