Kolkata, March 5: On Thursday, candidates from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) completed the nomination process for the Rajya Sabha elections from West Bengal. Four TMC candidates and one BJP candidate submitted their nominations.
This election is for a total of five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal. Given the current strength in the assembly, TMC is expected to win four seats while BJP is likely to secure one.
This means that the four TMC candidates and one BJP candidate could be elected unopposed, provided that no nominations are rejected during the scrutiny process and no candidates withdraw their nominations.
The scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on March 6, and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is March 9. Only after this date will the candidates be formally declared elected unopposed.
The four TMC candidates include former West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar, IT Minister and singer-turned-politician Babul Supriyo, senior Supreme Court lawyer Menaka Guruswamy, and popular Bengali actress Koel Mallick.
The sole candidate from the BJP is Rahul Sinha, the party’s former national secretary and ex-president of the West Bengal unit.
Three of the five seats became vacant due to the completion of terms of current Rajya Sabha MPs from TMC: Subrata Bakshi, Ritabrata Banerjee, and Saket Gokhale. The fourth seat became vacant when TMC MP Mausam Benazir Noor resigned from the Rajya Sabha to join Congress. Additionally, the term of CPI-M’s Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya is also ending. Currently, the CPI has no representation in the West Bengal assembly, making it likely that this seat will go to the BJP.
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