Overview

• DMK president M.K. Stalin announced P. Wilson, S.R. Sivalingam, Rokkaya Malik and MNM’s Kamal Haasan as the four nominees for the June 19 Rajya Sabha polls.
• Kamal Haasan’s nomination honors a pact under which his Makkal Needhi Maiam backed the DMK-led alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections without fielding any candidates.
• Each contender requires 34 votes in the 234-member assembly and the DMK’s 133 MLAs plus allied support virtually guarantee four seats for its coalition.
• The AIADMK, holding 62 MLAs and backed by BJP’s four legislators, is poised to claim the remaining two seats but has not finalized its nominees with rival allies staking claims.
• Voting and counting on June 19 will decide the upper house vacancies and assembly arithmetic makes an uncontested return for all official nominees highly probable.