THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The election to the three Rajya Sabha seats in the state will be held on March 31. The tenure of A K Antony, M V Sreyams Kumar and K Somaprasad are ending on April 2. The election to these three seats have been scheduled now.
The notification for the election will be issued on March 14 and the last date for giving the nomination will be March 21. The scrutiny of the nomination will be held on March 22. The election has been scheduled between 9am and 4pm on March 31. The counting will being at 5pm the same day.
As per the present strength of the state assembly, the LDF can win two seats and UDF one. Sreyams Kumar will not get another stint as the CPM will be taking over this seat. Sreyams Kumar was elected to the RS in the seat which had become vacant due to the demise of his father M P Veerendra Kumar. The CPM and Loktantrik Janata Dal had reached into an agreement that the LJD will not stake claim once the tenure complete. The CPI has decided to stake claim for the second seat.
Antony likely to stay away
The most interesting aspect of this election will be A K Antony’s stand on contesting for one more time. Sources close to him said that Antony was not willing to have one more stint in the upper house and this has been communicated to AICC president Sonia Gandhi.
If Antony is staying away from the election, then it will be a big headache for the KPCC leadership to find out a suitable replacement as many leaders will be staking claim for this seat.
The groups in the party are certain to engage in intense lobbying for the Rajya Sabha seat.
