Tamil Nadu: AIADMK sends M Thambidurai, K P Munusamy to Rajya Sabha

CHENNAI: The ruling AIADMK on Monday named senior leaders M Thambidurai and K P Munusamy as its Rajya Sabha candidates, bringing to an end intense lobbying from within as well as from alliance parties. It chose to offer the third seat to TMC president G K Vasan, an AIADMK ally.
While Thambi Durai was the Lok Sabha deputy speaker during 2014-19, Munusamy is one of the two deputy coordinators of AIADMK.Both the leaders, however, unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary elections last year - Thambi Durai from Karur and Munusamy from Krishnagiri.
Several leaders were mounting pressure on the AIADMK leadership for the three Rajya Sabha seats. Prominent aspirants included V Maitreyan, Natham R Viswanathan, Gokula Indra and A Anwhar Raajhaa, besides Thambi Durai and Munusamy. AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami had advised party leaders to abide by the decision of the leadership.
In addition, the AIADMK leadership was facing trouble from actor Vijayakant's DMDK seeking a Rajya Sabha seat for his brother-in-law L K Sudheesh. In a recent interaction with media, Vijayakant's wife reminded the AIADMK about its promise during the alliance talks for last year's Lok Sabha polls. Further, New Justice Party chief, A C Shanmugam, who is part of the AIADMK alliance and unsuccessfully contested the Vellore Lok Sabha election on the 'two leaves' symbol, was eyeing a seat.
"Unlike DMDK, Vasan did not make any noise and discreetly used his connections in Delhi to reach out to the BJP leadership. While Vasan had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi sometime ago, BJP national general secretary Muralidhar Rao met chief minister Palaniswami last week and conveyed BJP's suggestion to allot a seat to Vasan," a source privy to the developments said.
"I will act as a bridge between the Centre and state government and ensure timely allocation of central funds to Tamil Nadu," Vasan told reporters. Munusamy told TOI, "The decision to nominate me was taken by the party leadership and I am thankful to them. My work in Rajya Sabha will speak."