Exudes confidence of winning the RS election

Seeking a second consecutive term in Rajya Sabha, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Member of Parliament Kanimozhi filed her nomination papers on Saturday.

DMK president and her father, M. Karunanidhi, her brother and former Deputy Chief Minister M. K. Stalin were among the 11 party MLAs who proposed the candidature of the 45-year-old Kanimozhi. The next set of nominations she filed had the remaining 12 DMK MLAs in the Assembly proposing her name. Barring Mr.Karunanidhi, all the DMK MLAs, Member of Parliament T.R.Baalu were present when she filed her nominations.

In a brief interaction with presspersons, Ms.Kanimozhi said she was confident of winning the election. On how it was possible considering DMK had only 23 MLAs while 34 votes were required for victory, she said Mr.Karunanidhi had ensured the victory in 1986 with just 22 MLAs. Stating that she believed him, Ms.Kanimozhi said a decision on seeking the support of other parties would only be taken by him.

In an affidavit along with her nomination, she declared the value of total moveable assets at Rs.16.67 crore. The approximate current market price of the commercial building – a self acquired property – that she has on Anna Salai, Chennai, was pegged at Rs.10 crore.

Compared to her declaration at the time of Rajya Sabha election in June, 2007, this is significantly higher. Then, she had a fixed deposit for Rs.6.4 crore, two savings bank accounts totalling about Rs.18.48 lakh, a Toyota Camry worth Rs.18.7 lakh. The commercial building was valued at Rs.1.61 crore.

On Saturday, the two sets of nominations she filed before the Returning Officer and Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary A.M.P. Jamaludeen said fixed deposits and money in savings bank accounts in her name totalled Rs.12.40 crore. Her shareholding in West Gate Logistics is valued at Rs.5 lakh and she also has got 24,50,000 bonus shares in the company.

Ms.Kanimozhi holds 2.02 lakh shares in Kalaignar TV whose value is a little over Rs.2 crore. She also cited Rs.1.31 crore as receivable from her mother Rajathi Ammal.

With regard to automobiles, Kanimozhi owns a Range Rover and Toyota Altis, whose value was given as around Rs.78 lakh. She owns 700 grams of gold, 240 grams from her 2007 declaration. There is no change with regard to diamonds in her possession. They remain at 10 carats and valued Rs 18 lakh.

Ms.Kanimozhi, who is an accused in the 2G spectrum case, said there was one pending case in which charges have been framed by the court for offences punishable with imprisonment for two years or more.