Left scouting for RS seats in Tamil Nadu

NEW DELHI: With Election Commission announcing the dates for filing nominations to the Rajya Sabha, the CPI(M), which faced a drubbing in the West Bengal Assembly elections, is forced to look down south to Tamil Nadu, to get three of its Politburo members—Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat and Mohammed Amin—re-elected to the Upper House.The three CPM members’ terms are coming to an end next month along with RSP’s Abani Roy. All of them represent West Bengal.The CPM, obviously, is desperate to bring at least two of them—Brinda and Yechury—back, as the duo had been one of the most active and visible faces of the party in the Delhi corridors.  In West Bengal, where the Assembly strength is 294, a party requires the support of 42 MLAs to send a member to the Rajya Sabha. But with the Left managing only 62 seats, of which CPM has only 40, it would be able to send only one RS MP this year.  And in Kerala, the other Left bastion, vacancies will come up only next year. Even then, it is quite unlikely that these PB members would stand a chance there, as the state unit is yet to send any “outsider” from its domain.This has forced the Left to look up to its ally in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, as the state also has elections to one RS seat coming up along with Bengal, after AIADMK member K V Ramalingam resigned, following his election to the Tamil Nadu Assembly. He is currently the PWD minister in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet.  The AIADMK-Left alliance won 203 of 234 Assembly se­ats in recent polls, with AIADMK getting 150 of them. The CPM, whose general secretary Prakash Karat has a good personal rapport with the Jayalalithaa, is hoping to secure an RS nomination from AIADMK supremo for his wife Brinda.  Presently, the AIADMK has five members and the DMK seven in Rajya Sabha.The CPI too is trying its lu­ck in TN. National secre­ta­ry D Raja met Jayalali­thaa when she was in Delhi last we­ek, when, sources say, RS nominations were discussed.  The Election Commission has announced that the final date for filing RS nominations is July 12.