Kolkata, February 18 – Out of the five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal for which elections will be held on March 16, the ruling Trinamool Congress is set to comfortably win four, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have to settle for one, based on the numerical strength of the two parties in the state Assembly.
Of these Rajya Sabha seats, three will become vacant with the end of the current terms of sitting Trinamool members, namely Subrata Bakshi, Ritabrata Banerjee, and Saket Gokhale.
The fourth seat, which is becoming vacant, is that of the former Trinamool MP, Mausam Benazir Noor, who recently resigned from the Rajya Sabha and joined the Congress. Based on the Trinamool's existing strength in the West Bengal Congress, the party will comfortably elect its candidates from these four seats.
The term of CPI-M Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya is also ending. Since the party does not have any strength in the Assembly now, the BJP will be able to easily elect its lone candidate from that seat.
The Trinamool has been tight-lipped about their choice of candidates for the four seats. In the case of the BJP, three names are being discussed. These include former actress-turned-politician and former MP Locket Chatterjee, and the second is megastar Mithun Chakraborty, who was once a Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member.
The name of the current BJP legislator from the 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, according to an insider from the BJP's state committee in West Bengal.
According to a statement issued by the Election Commission, the notification for the elections for 37 Rajya Sabha seats in 19 states, including the five from West Bengal, will be issued on February 26.
The last date for filing nominations will be March 5, and the scrutiny of the nominations will be on March 6.
The last date for withdrawal of candidatures will be March 9. The polling will be conducted on March 16, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The counting of votes will also be on March 16.