BJP push helps Vasan get Rajya Sabha seat

Moments after the AIADMK announced Vasan’s name for the biennial election to be held on March 26, political circles, especially Congress and even a few reticent AIADMK insiders went vocal about the background of Vasan’s candidature. A Congress leader claimed on condition of anonymity that one of the AICC veterans who had held a top constitutional post in New Delhi had played a crucial role in successfully persuading the BJP national leadership to rehabilitate his friend Moopanar’s son.

Some Congress insiders, who preferred to stay low, asserted that a business conglomerate actively engaged in port business had also put its weight behind the former shipping minister who would be entering the Upper House of the Parliament without a single MLA to his party’s credit.

“Vijayakant’s DMDK was allotted four Lok Sabha seats by the AIADMK, but the party with two per cent assured vote share has been denied ticket. Vasan’s TMC does not have even the meagre vote share. His party was allotted a lone LS seat last year. It is anyone’s guess as to how such a party (TMC) managed a Rajya Sabha berth and that too when there was cutthroat competition in the ruling AIADMK itself,” reasoned a Congress functionary.

Similar views were echoed by disgruntled AIADMK insiders off the media glare. Rama Suganthan, son of deceased Congress veteran Vazhapadi Ramamurthy did not hold back even. ‘ADMK’ has now become ‘Adani DMK,’ he posted on his official Facebook page.

Even worse, a few TMC insiders who had disclosed Vasan’s probable candidature to DT Next last week, did not mind conceding on Monday that their leader’s nomination was made possibly because of the good graces of the BJP top brass. Admitting that the pressure was imposed on the AIADMK from New Delhi to secure the MP ticket, a TMC functionary proudly said, “We were confident that the AIADMK would honour the promise it had made during the Lok Sabha elections. But the pressure from Delhi cannot be discounted. It was the clincher.” Curiously, he also went on to brag about how the Prime Minister had chosen to invite only Vasan to the capital during his Tamil Nadu visit for the bilateral Mamallapuram summit.