The Congress party is keen to get former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh elected to the Rajya Sabha as his term is ending in April 2019.
Now that the Congress does not have the numbers to have Dr Singh re-elected from Assam, the Congress interlocutors have floated the idea that he be nominated from Tamil Nadu — the DMK willing, of course.
Why Tamil Nadu? Because the state will see six RS vacancies in April, chief among them being Kanimozhi’s — who is slated to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Thoothukudi.
However, the DMK’s M K Stalin has been playing hide and seek with the Congress, the reason being that the final assault on the LTTE by Sri Lanka in 2009 was carried out when Dr Singh was prime minister, and Stalin is worried about a possible public backlash in TN if he accedes to the idea.
DMK sources have already communicated this to the Congress party.
When the DMK similarly refused to accommodate P Chidambaram in the Rajya Sabha the Congress high command quickly got him elected from Maharashtra. Will it do the same thing for Dr Singh, too?
