Congress’ Praveen Chakravarty elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu

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Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty with Congress and TVK leaders, after being declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha by the Returning Officer at Chennai on June 11, 2026 | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Returning Officer for the bye-election to the lone vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Tamil Nadu P. Thenmozhi on Thursday (June 11, 2026) declared Congress nominee Praveen Chakravarty elected unopposed.

The vacancy arose following the resignation of AIADMK leader C.Ve. Shanmugam from the Upper House on May 7 after he was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from the Mailam constituency in Villupuram district.

Barring Mr. Chakravarty’s nomination, the nominations of the remaining 12 independent candidates were rejected during scrutiny on June 9. As the number of valid nominations accepted was equal to the number of vacancies, the Returning Officer declared Mr. Chakravarty elected unopposed.

He will be the third Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu. Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Christopher Manickam are the two other representatives of the party from the State in the Upper House.

Speaking to journalists at the Secretariat in Chennai, Mr. Chakravarty thanked TVK leader and Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and other leaders of the TVK and the Congress.

Though the Congress has only five MLAs in the Assembly, his election was facilitated by the TVK, which allotted the seat to the Congress, a post-poll ally.

He said he is entering Parliament at an important time as the Narendra Modi-led Union government has been planning to introduce a few Bills, which according to him are against the rights of States. He said he would raise his voice against such Bills on behalf of Tamil Nadu in Parliament.