RS polls: DMK to hold talks with other parties

Chennai: DMK will hold consultations with other political parties over fielding a candidate for the June 27 Rajya Sabha Elections being held for six seats.

DMK supremo M Karunanidhi on Thursday presided over a meeting of party MLAs to discuss the issue, with four more days left for the deadline for filing of nomination papers. Emerging from the meeting, Karunanidhi replying to queries from mediapersons, said, "We have not taken a decision so far. DMK will take an appropriate decision at an appropriate time". Asked whether DMK had sought the support of CPI(M), he said "We have not sought the support of any particular party. We will talk to all parties." Declining to divulge anything further, he said "there are four more days to file nominations". DMK has a strength of 23 members in the 234-member Assembly. Each winning candidate needs 34 first preference votes to get elected. Ruling AIADMK has fielded five candidates, though it has the strength to easily win four seats, apparently indicating it is making efforts to garner another seat. Of these five candidates, the ruling party is assured of netting four on its own by virtue of its 151 MLAs in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, whose total strength is 234. The principal opposition DMDK led by actor turned politician Vijayakant has not finalised plans over contesting the sixth seat. PTI