5 Rajya Sabha candidates from Bengal get winning certificates

Kolkata, Mar 9 (PTI) Four TMC Rajya Sabha candidates and one BJP aspirant from West Bengal were virtually elected to the Upper House on Monday and got their winning certificates from the Election Commission.

As the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls fell on Monday (March 9), the numbers in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly were firmly stacked in favour of the ruling TMC, which won four of the five RS seats from the state.

Similarly, going by its numerical strength as the principal opposition, the BJP bagged one seat for which it had filed a nomination.

The four TMC RS elects are Babul Supriyo, earlier a minister in the state Cabinet, former DGP Rajeev Kumar, senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy and actor Koel Mallick.

BJP candidate Rahul Sinha also received his certificate as the winner of the fifth seat from the state.

Speaking to reporters, Supriyo said he would "give 100 per cent to voice the issues faced by West Bengal as an opposition member in Rajya Sabha," while Sinha said he would highlight "misgovernance and abetting infiltration by the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal." The candidates had filed their nominations on March 5.

While the Election Commission had scheduled polling for 37 Rajya Sabha seats across multiple states, including West Bengal, for March 16, the state candidates were virtually declared winners as no additional nominations were filed, eliminating the possibility of cross-voting.

Supriyo, a former Union minister in the Narendra Modi government, had joined the TMC in September 2021 after quitting the BJP.

He later won the Ballygunge Assembly bypoll on a TMC ticket and currently serves as a minister in the state government.

His nomination is seen as recognition of his political repositioning and continued role in the state government.

Kumar is a former Indian Police Service officer who served as the Director General of Police of West Bengal, and earlier headed the Kolkata Police.

He was also at the centre of a high-profile confrontation between the state government and central agencies during the probe into the Saradha chit fund case.

A senior advocate of the Supreme Court, Guruswamy was among the lawyers representing petitioners in the landmark constitutional challenge that led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in India through the reading down of Section 377 of the IPC in 2018.

Minister and senior TMC leader Aroop Biswas collected the winning certificate on behalf of Guruswamy.

Mallick is a prominent actor in the Bengali film industry and the daughter of veteran actor Ranjit Mallick, while BJP's Rahul Sinha is a former state party president. PTI SUS MNB