Picking up Rajya Sabha nominees not a cakewalk for Stalin

If sources in the party are to be believed, Stalin was approached by eminent businessmen for a RS ticket, of course, for a hefty sum. Like in the past, the incumbent DMK chief had turned down the request of the corporate honcho who was willing to donate a lumpsum to the party. Stalin, DMK sources revealed, had declined the highly lucrative offer of the businessman who had the backing of a few members of an influential DMK family even.

In the same breath, Stalin had poured cold water on the plans of those DMK men who expected the leadership to snub incumbent MP Tiruchy N Siva, whose nomination was unsuccessfully resisted by Stalin six years ago when then party president M Karunanidhi had picked him in 2013. Siva’s wisdom muscled out his rivals, thanks to Stalin who had overlooked the communal calculations too.

Reservations were expressed over Siva and his colleague TKS Elangovan hailing from the ‘same’ community. The buzz was that Siva’s ability to successfully push a private members bill in support of transgenders and securing GST exemption for sanitary napkins in the Parliament were too tough for his rivals to prevent his fourth nomination to the Rajya Sabha.

Equally surprising was the fielding of ‘Anthiyur’ Selvaraj who didn’t even approach the high command for a RS ticket to end his near political retirement. Sources have it that Stalin had rewarded Selvaraj’s loyalty, overlooking deputy general secretary VP Duraisamy, also a member of Arundathiyar community, who failed to convince the leadership despite citing his sacrifice. Duraisamy had relinquished his RS membership while returning from AIADMK over a decade ago. Asked to choose between an ex-minister who remained off limelight in the party for a decade and a homecoming defector, Stalin preferred the former to satisfy a marginalised community, which could contribute electorally, even if it were little, in the Kongu region.

Similarly, the DMK chief had faced pressure from MP aspirants to propose his favourite of the three, senior advocate NR Elango. Aspirants were understood to have compared the communal similarity of Elango and RS Bharathi (both hail from Mudaliyar community) as well as nomination of P Wilson to the capital to spoil the prospects of the senior advocate making his Parliamentary debut. However, the DMK chief was firm on awarding Elango who had unsuccessfully contested from Arakkonam in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on his insistence.