ADMK's Rajya Sabha ticket to GK Vasan...Will he become Union Minister?

After the series of speculations and lobbies, the Tamil Nadu ruling ADMK and the opposition DMK parties had announced its final candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections which will elect six members from Tamil Nadu as these six seats are going to become vacant by next month. As per the act, the MLAs are entitled to vote and elect the MPs for Rajya Sabha and with the current strength in the assembly, both ADMK and DMK can send three MPs each to fill the six seats. The two rival parties had announced three candidates each and they would be having comfortable entry to the Upper house of the Parliament.

On March 1st, DMK has announced incumbent Trichy Siva, NR Elango, and Anthiyur Selvaraj as its candidates whereas the ADMK has named its candidates on Monday after pedaling with series of lobbies from its allied parties. Former ADMK Minister KP Munusamy, Former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, and Former Union Minister GK Vasan had been bestowed with the party's ticket for the Upper house. The ADMK party had gone through the demand from the allied party leaders who asked the party to award a ticket for them. 

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(L-R) ADMK candidates GK Vasan, KP Munusamy, and Thambidurai - File photo

 

As we reported earlier, more than thirty people had either lobbied directly or indirectly to ADMK leader Edappadi Palaniswami and pressed him for the ticket. ADMK allied party DMDK, which is led by Vijayakanth, had expressed its hope that it would get a ticket for Rajya Sabha from ADMK as like how the ruling party had awarded a ticket PMK party in the previous Rajya Sabha elections. DMDK's leader Sudheesh had directly meet Edappadi Palaniswami and negotiated a Rajya Sabha seat. Along with the allied parties, some of the senior ADMK leaders were vying for a berth in the Upper house and even Tamil Mannila Congress chief GK Vasan has negotiated with ADMK to step into the Rajya Sabha.

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         Panneerselvam greeting GK Vasan - File photo

 

However, amid the speculations, the ADMK party has on Monday finalized and announced its candidates as KP Munusamy, Thambidurai, and GK Vasan and while, on one hand, DMDK party was said to be with displeasure over declining its candidature, on the other hand, GK Vasan has become a surprise pick as his party doesn't have an MLA in the current Tamil Nadu assembly. When we reached out to our sources about Vasan's candidacy, they say that former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and a Gujarat based business magnate had approached the BJP party and strongly recommended Vasan's candidacy.

Following their recommendations, Central ruling BJP thought to negotiate with ADMK party to reserve a berth for GK Vasan and it was at this high time when ADMK ministers Jayakumar and Thangamani met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi and amid the discussions over the ongoing protests against the CAA, Amit Shah discussed with the ADMK ministers to award a ticket to GK Vasan in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls and Amit Shah also stated that the ADMK party can join the Central cabinet as Modi would be reshuffling the cabinet after the completion of the current Budget session.

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ADMK Minister Velumani greeting GK Vasan after he became ADMK's candidate for the Upper house - March 9, 2020

 

After returning to Chennai, the ADMK ministers had spoken about the meet with Amit Shah to Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami. Our sources stated that Deputy Chief Minister Panneerselvam has been eyeing a cabinet ministerial berth to his son Ravindranath Kumar, who is the party's only MP in Lok Sabha. On the other hand, former MP Vaidhyalingam has also been dreaming about the cabinet minister post through the Chief Minister. 

However, the sources divulged that Edappadi Palaniswami is wishing to forgo the alliance with the BJP in the upcoming legislative elections and if ADMK gets inducted into the Central cabinet, the party would be destined to keep the BJP alliance alive. With the view of that, he would breakdown the alliance with the Central ruling party. This has been the major reason why Edappadi Palaniswami has awarded a ticket to KP Munusamy, the strong supporter of Panneerselvam and the rest two were given to Thambidurai and GK Vasan. Since the ADMK currently observes alliance with the BJP, it has considered its recommendation and awarded a ticket to GK Vasan. As Vasan would be having comfortable entry to the Rajya Sabha, our sources revealed that former President Pranab Mukherjee and Gujarati businessman, who lobbied earlier for Vasan, have now been reaching out to the Central BJP party to confer a Cabinet Ministerial berth to Vasan. Some of the leaders of Tamil Maanila Congress say Vasan would be inducted into the Central cabinet while Modi reshuffles his cabinet after the completion of the parliamentary session.

 

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