Thug Life actor and politician Kamal Hassan and five others, including poet Salma and P. Wilson, the strongman behind DMK's legal victory against Governor RN Ravi, on Thursday got elected unapposed to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu in the biennial election.
As many as 13 nominations were received by B. Subramaniam, the returning officer and Additional secretary to the Tamil Nadu assembly. Off the 13 only six were found eligible. "All six nominations – three from the DMK, one from MNM, and two from AIADMK – were accepted after scrutiny. They have been duly elected to fill the vacancies of six members in the Council of States who will retire on July 24, 2025,” Subramaniyam said.
Apart from Kamal Hassan, Salma and Wilson, S.R. Sivalingam of the DMK, I.S. Inbadurai and M. Dhanapal from the AIADMK were also elected unapposed to the Rajya Sabha. All six MPs will continue in office for a six year term, till July 2031.
With these new members the strength of the DMK in the Rajya Sabha will remain the same at 10 while the opposition AIADMK's strength will go up to five from the existing five members. The AIADMK which once allocated one seat to PMK's Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, one of the alliance partners , chose to retain it this time. Apart from the DMK and the AIADMK, the Congress, MNM and TMC from Tamil Nadu will have members in the Rajya Sabha. P. Chidambaram from the congress and G.K. Vasan from the TMC are the Rajya Sabha MPs.
