Kolkata, March 5 The process of filing nominations for four Trinamool Congress candidates and one Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for election to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal was completed at the state Assembly on Thursday.
Incidentally, the total number of Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal going to polls this time is also five. As per the current numerical strength of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the Assembly, the ruling party is comfortably placed to secure four seats, while the opposition BJP is expected to win one.
In effect, it can be said that the five candidates -- four from the Trinamool Congress and one from the BJP -- who filed their nominations on Thursday afternoon are likely to be elected unopposed, unless any of the nominations are rejected during scrutiny or a candidate withdraws his or her nomination.
The scrutiny of nominations will take place on March 6, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 9. Only after that will the candidates be formally declared elected unopposed.
The four Trinamool Congress candidates who filed their nominations on Thursday are former West Bengal Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar; current West Bengal Information Technology Minister and singer-actor-turned-politician Babul Supriyo; senior Supreme Court advocate Menaka Guruswamy, a prominent face of the country’s queer rights movement; and popular Bengali actress Koel Mallick.
The lone BJP candidate who filed his nomination on Thursday was the party’s former national secretary and former West Bengal state president Rahul Sinha.
Of the five Rajya Sabha seats, three have fallen vacant with the completion of the terms of sitting Trinamool Congress members Subrata Bakshi, Ritabrata Banerjee, and Saket Gokhale.
The fourth seat fell vacant after erstwhile Trinamool Congress MP Mausam Benazir Noor resigned from the Rajya Sabha and recently joined the Congress.
The term of CPI-M Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya is also coming to an end. Since the CPI(M) currently has no representation in the West Bengal Assembly, the BJP is expected to comfortably secure that seat.
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