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Karunanidhi proposes Moopanar for RS

Tamil Maanila Congress president G K Moopanar today filed his nomination papers for the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu.

Four sets of nomination, including one proposed by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and Health Minister Aroct Veerasamy and eight TMC legislators, were submitted to assembly secretary Solomon Jayapaul, who is the returning officer for the election.

Moopanar filed his papers in the presence of Karunanidhi and Veerasamy and leader of the opposition S Balakrishnan.

Today is the last date for filing nominations for the six Rajya Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu which fall vacant following the retirement of six members belonging to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham.

Five ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam nominees filed their nominations yesterday.

All the six candidates are expected to be declared elected on June 10, the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

Moopanar, who was elected the Rajya Sabha on the Congress ticket during the previous AIADMK regime in the state, had resigned his membership last year after a Shiv Sena MP challenged his membership on the ground that he had formed the TMC after his election on the Congress ticket.

Moopanar did not contest the by-election to the Rajya Sabha caused by his resignation last year, as there were strains in the relationship between the DMK and the TMC then and the ruling party's support was necessary for his election.

Although none of the five DMK nominees for the coming election was proposed by TMC members, the chief minister himself proposed Moopanar's nomination in an open display of the soundness of the alliance between the two parties, forged during the 1996 general election.

The TMC can win one seat on the strength of its own members in the Assembly, since only 34 votes are needed to get elected.

UNI

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