Kolkata, March 9 Five candidates in the fray for elections to five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal were declared elected unopposed on Monday. Of the five candidates, four are from the Trinamool Congress and one from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Monday was the last date for the withdrawal of nominations and since the deadline expired without any withdrawal applications, all five candidates in the fray were declared elected unopposed.
After being elected, Trinamool Congress candidate Babul Supriyo, former West Bengal Information Technology Minister and a singer-turned-politician, said his main task as a member of the Upper House of Parliament would be to highlight issues related to West Bengal.
"As a former Union Minister of State, the Rajya Sabha is a known territory for me,” said Supriyo, who is also a former two-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member and a former Union Minister of State in Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet.
Another winner from the Trinamool Congress and the just-retired acting Director General of West Bengal Police, Rajeev Kumar, said that getting elected to the Upper House of Parliament was undoubtedly a matter of honour and responsibility for him.
“I will try to give my best in the new role,” Kumar said.
Popular Bengali actress Koel Mallick was the third Trinamool Congress candidate to be elected to the Rajya Sabha.
“I want the blessings of all. I want to work for the people of West Bengal as a member of the Upper House of Parliament,” she said.
However, the fourth elected Trinamool Congress candidate and senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, also a leading face of the queer movement in the country, was not available for comment.
The lone BJP candidate elected, Rahul Sinha -- also the party’s former national secretary and former state president in West Bengal -- said that although he had been in organisational politics for years, he was happy to enter parliamentary politics for the first time.
“I am confident of getting acclimatised to the new role at the earliest. I will try to work in parliamentary politics with the same dedication and honesty that I have shown for all these years in organisational politics,” Sinha said.
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