Six Trinamool Congress nominees and one candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were on July 17 elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. There were only seven candidates for seven seats in the State and no elections were held.
‘Certificate of Election’ was given to Trinamool Congress leaders Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale, Prakash Chick Baraik and Samirul Islam in the West Bengal State Assembly. A representative of Derek O’ Brien collected the certificate on his behalf. BJP’s Ananta Roy was also elected unopposed today.
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A number of ministers and ruling party MLAs, including Ministers Aroop Roy and Tapas Roy accompanied the Trinamool nominees to the State Assembly. The BJP candidate was accompanied by Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP MLAs.
Foregone conclusion
Considering the strength of the Trinamool Congress which has over 216 MLAs and the BJP with about 70 MLAs, the elections were a foregone conclusion. More than half a dozen MLAs elected on BJP tickets in the 2021 assembly polls have defected to the Trinamool Congress. The West Bengal Assembly has 294 seats, which means 42 first preference votes are required for a candidate to be elected to Rajya Sabha from the State.
Both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP have picked candidates with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The State’s ruling party dropped Santa Chetri and Sushmita Dev and decided to nominate Prakash Chik Baraik, a representative of the tribal community and Samirul Islam a Muslim social worker. Tribals and Muslims are key to the Trinamool’s chances in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Another Rajya Sabha MP who was denied re-nomination is Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya who was elected in 2017 with the support of Congress and Trinamool MLAs in the Assembly.
The BJP’s pick Nagendra Roy alias Ananta Maharaj is leader of Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association (GCPA) a group calling for a separate state to be carved out of the territories of Cooch Behar district and lower Assam.
A first for the BJP
While the BJP had earlier nominated Swapan Dasgupta and Roopa Ganguly, this is the first time that the BJP has been able to send a nominee to the Upper House on the basis of numbers in the State Assembly. The nomination is clearly aimed at winning seats in north Bengal with a significant Rajbangshi population.
Along with retaining the three key faces in Rajya Sabha Derek O’ Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Dola Sen the Trinamool Congress sprung up a surprise with the nomination of RTI activist Saket Gokhale. Mr. Gokhale joined the Trinamool in August 2021 and his arrest in December 2022 for tweets relating to the Gujarat Morbi bridge collapse brought him to the Centre of politics. The Trinamool Congress has put its weight behind the party’s spokesperson after his arrest and rewarded him with a Rajya Sabha berth.
