Kolkata, Feb 10 (IANS) The BJP might finalise its lone candidate for the Rajya Sabha nomination from West Bengal by the first week of March.
A total of five seats in the Upper House of the Parliament from West Bengal are falling vacant by the end of April this year.
As per the numerical strength equation in the West Bengal Assembly, Trinamool Congress will easily get its candidates elected from four out of the five vacant seats, while the BJP will be able to get its lone candidate elected.
Till now, insiders from the West Bengal unit of the BJP said, three names are being discussed for nomination for the chair. The first name is that of megastar Mithun Chakraborty, the second being the former party Lok Sabha member and actress-turned-politician, Locket Chatterjee.
Though in a limited way, the name of the current BJP legislator from Balurghat Assembly constituency in South Dinajpur district and the former Chief Economic Advisor to the Union government, Dr Ashok Kumar Lahiri, is also being discussed, an insider from the BJP’s state committee in West Bengal said.
Chakraborty had earlier been a Rajya Sabha member from the Trinamool Congress. However, he resigned from the chair before the completion of his term, after the names of several Trinamool Congress leaders got linked with multiple chit fund cases in West Bengal, including those of the Saradha Group and Rose Valley Group.
Chatterjee, on the other hand, was elected a BJP Lok Sabha member from Hooghly constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, in 2024, she was defeated by Trinamool Congress candidate and also an actress-turned-politician Rachna Banerjee.
Lahiri, on the other hand, entered the domain of politics before the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections and successfully contested from Balurghat Assembly constituency in that election.
The three sitting Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha members whose current terms are ending in April this year are Subrata Bakshi, Ritabrata Banerjee, and Saket Gokhale. Erstwhile Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member, Mausam Benazir Noor, resigned from Rajya Sabha and joined the Congress, and that seat is currently vacant.
The term of CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya is also ending this April. Since the CPI(M) does not have any strength in the West Bengal Assembly now, the BJP will be able to get its lone candidate elected from that seat easily.
–IANS
src/rad
