The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has announced its candidates for six Rajya Sabha seats in West Bengal. The party has retained three of its sitting members and announced three fresh faces for the Upper House, branding its choice of candidates as a blend of experience and youth. Sushmita Dev, who joined the Trinamool after quitting the Congress, does not find space in the list.
The seats will go to polls later this month. The six names include sitting MPs Derek O’Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Dola Sen. Mr. O’Brien has been an MP since 2011 and is currently the floor leader of the party, while Mr. Ray, who was first sent to the Upper House in 2012, is the Deputy Chief Whip. Ms. Sen, a senior leader and trade unionist, became an MP in 2017.
The newcomers are Bangla Sanskriti Mancha president, 35-year-old Samirul Islam; TMC’s Alipurduar district president 42-year-old Prakash Chik Baraik; and RTI activist and TMC spokesperson 36-year-old Saket Gokhale.
The selection of three new faces signals careful political calculation by the TMC. Mr. Baraik’s nomination, party insiders say, is aimed at bolstering the party’s influence in north Bengal, where the BJP had managed to make inroads. To Mr. Baraik’s credit, Alipurduar’s BJP MLA Suman Kanjilal jumped ship to the TMC this February, becoming the central party’s sixth legislator to do so. He is also the tribal face of the party.
Mr. Islam is an assistant professor at Howrah college and is the minority face of the party. His organisation Bangla Sanskriti Mancha is believed to wield huge support in the districts of Birbhum, Murshidabad, Malda, East and West Burdwan and Hooghly.
Arrested by ED
While both Mr. Islam and Mr. Baraik have been working in the party for long, Mr. Gokhale only joined in August last year. He hit the headlines earlier this year when he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged crowd-funding and misappropriation of funds.
Besides Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Ray and Ms. Sen, the tenures of Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya, TMC’s Assam leader Sushmita Dev and its Darjeeling leader Shanta Chhetri ended, following which the six seats fell vacant
It is learnt that Ms. Sen will be fielded from Assam in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. A seventh Rajya Sabha seat from West Bengal is also vacant after former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro resigned as TMC MP in April. A by-poll will be held for that seat along with the elections to these six seats on July 24.
The seventh seat from the State is expected to be won by the BJP, which has not yet announced its pick.
