TVK allots lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu to Congress for bypoll

Key points

• Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C.
• Joseph Vijay, on Wednesday (June 3, 2026), announced that the party has allocated to its ally the Congress, the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu, for which bypolls are scheduled to be held on June 18. The TVK’s decision to forgo an opportunity to send its first nominee to the Rajya Sabha and instead allot it to its post-poll ally, the Congress, which has only five MLAs in the State Legislative Assembly, surprised many in the ruling party.
• Shanmugam’s resignation Vijay’s announcement came shortly after a Congress delegation led by All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Tamil Nadu Girish Chodankar met him at the Secretariat in Chennai and requested him to allocate the Rajya Sabha seat, which fell vacant following the resignation of AIADMK leader C.
• Shanmugam, to the Congress.
• Shanmugam, who was elected to...