Seven elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from West Bengal
The Hindu
Trinamool Congress and BJP candidates elected unopposed to West Bengal's Rajya Sabha. No elections held due to strength of parties. Both parties aim to win seats in 2024 LS polls.
Kolkata
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.
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.
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.
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