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Kamal Haasan, president of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), and five others were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
They received election certificates from the Returning Officer Subramani at the Chennai Secretariat. The five others elected are DMK's Poet Salma (A Rokkaiah Malik), SR Sivalingam, P Wilson (who enters his second term), and AIADMK's IS Inbadurai and Dhanapal. Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and other MPs were present during the certificate distribution ceremony. Kamal Haasan's election to the Upper House marks a significant milestone in his political journey, as he assumes a national legislative role for the first time. He was nominated with the support of the ruling DMK-led alliance, which had promised him a Rajya Sabha seat in return for MNM's support during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Kamal Haasan filed his nomination on June 6 at the Tamil Nadu Secretariat in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin, Deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin, and DMK allies, including VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalavan, MDMK's Vaiko, and Tamil Nadu Congress chief Selvaperunthagai. In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, a candidate requires a minimum of 34 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat. With 158 MLAs from the DMK-led INDIA bloc (DMK-133, Congress-17, VCK-4, CPI-2, CPM-2), the alliance was comfortably positioned to secure four seats. The DMK had earlier announced Salma, P Wilson, and S R Sivalingam as its Rajya Sabha candidates. MNM had not contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and had instead extended full support to the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu. In the 2021 Assembly elections, MNM had secured 2.62 per cent of the vote share. (ANI)
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