AIADMK nominee Gokulakrishnan elected to RS from Puducherry

AIADMK nominee N Gokulakrishnan was today declared elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from the lone Upper House seat from the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The announcement was made by returning Officer S Mohandoss at the end of deadline 3 PM for withdrawal of nominations.
Puducherry Chief Electoral Officer V Candavelou, also the Observer of the Election Commission of India, was present during the declaration of the result.
However, Gokulakrishnan was not present when the announcement was made.
This is the second time that an AIADMK candidate has been elected to the Upper House since annexing the seat in 1977.
The AIADMK has thus wrested the seat from the Congress.

Election for the seat became necessary as the office term of the sitting member from Congress party, P Kannan, ends on October 6.

Gokulakrishnan is a close friend to N Rangasamy, Puducherry Chief Minister and founder of the ruling All India N R Congress (AINRC).
It was amidst dramatic development that he enrolled himself on September 18 (last day) to file the papers as member of the AIADMK and filed the nominations for the poll with the support of the ruling AINRC.
The AINRC government, headed by Rangasamy, was on the verge of crisis for nearly two weeks after some of its party legislators revolted due to the delay in announcement of party candidate for the Rajya Sabha poll.

One of the legislators, G Nehru, quit the post of whip (while retaining the post of MLA) a few days before the poll.
In an surprise development, the 61-year-old Gokulakrishnan was fielded as the candidate of the AIADMK with support from AINRC.
AINRC has a strength of 15-member, including the Speaker, while the AIADMK has five members.
Gokulakrishnan, an industrialist, hails from Karaikal.
He was the lone candidate left in the fray after the nominations of four other candidates, who filed their papers as independents were rejected at the end of scrutiny on September 19.