Sources said Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of AICC technology and data cell, is topping the Congress leadership’s probable list for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state and the party leadership is optimistic of Vijay’s positive response to the request. State PCC president K Selvaperunthagai, a Dalit, is also learnt to be an aspirant. Chakravarty and Congress Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore were among the early Congress functionaries who had advocated for a tie-up between TVK and Congress. The byelection is to fill the remaining tenure of two years of a Rajya Sabha term after an AIADMK MP vacated the seat following his election to the assembly.
As Vijay, who met the PM here, returned to Chennai on Thursday without meeting Gandhis, Congress maintained that his meeting with Congress leaders would take place during his next Delhi visit.
When TVK swept the Tamil Nadu polls and yet fell short of a simple majority by a few seats, Congress (and a few others) backed him to fill the gap. Congress push for a Rajya Sabha seat signifies the party trying to get the best possible deals at the earliest as Vijay’s party is also trying to acquire its own majority in the assembly by pursuing some AIADMK MLAs to resign and contest the assembly bypolls on the TVK symbol. Congress had managed to get one Rajya Sabha seat from DMK weeks before their alliance unravelled.
