TMC names Babul Supriyo, Koel Mallick among 4 for Rajya Sabha polls

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress on Friday night announced Minister Babul Supriyo, former West Bengal police chief Rajeev Kumar, lawyer Menaka Guruswamy and actress Koel Mallick as its candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election.

None of the four retiring Trinamool MPs, including Mausam Noor who has joined Congress, will be returning to the Upper House as they have not been renominated. Trinamool General Secretary Subrata Bakshi, Ritabrata Banerjee and Saket Gokhale are the three party MPs who will retire next month.

Former West Bengal police chief Rajeev Kumar

Five seats are going to Rajya Sabha polls in West Bengal on March 16 and of this, Trinamool can win four of them owing to its numerical strength in the Assembly.

The fifth seat is all set to go to the BJP in place of CPI(M), whose leader Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya is retiring.

With this, CPI(M), with no MLAs in the Assembly, will cease to have its representative from West Bengal in the House.

Among those who are not renominated, Banerjee, a former CPI(M) MP who joined Trinamool and heads its trade union, is likely to contest the Assembly polls.

Supriyio, who was a union minister in the Narendra Modi government before joining Trinamool Congress in September 2021, will be returning to Parliament after a gap of five years. He had won Asansol Lok Sabha seat twice on BJP ticket in 2014 and 2019 but resigned in 2021 after joining Trinamool.

The singer-turned-politician won an Assembly bypoll from Ballygunge seat and became Minister of Information Technology as well as Tourism. Under Modi, he was Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Heavy Industries and Housing and Urban Development during various period.

Presently, he is a minister in Mamata Banerjee government and his nomination to the Rajya Sabha would mean that he would not be contesting Assembly elections.

Trinamool has also nominated former Bengal Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, considered close to Mamata, besides prominent lawyer Menaka Guruswamy, a vocal advocate of LGBTQi rights, and actress Koel Mallick.

“We extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to them. May they continue to uphold Trinamool’s enduring legacy of resilience and its unwavering commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of every Indian,” Trinamool said on ‘X’.