Bengal Congress thwarts TMC bid to bring Meira Kumar to Rajya Sabha

Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress made a last-minute effort to wean away Congress from its partner, CPI(M), in the Rajya Sabha elections in West Bengal by proposing to support former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar's candidature but it did not succeed.

Much to the disappointment of Congress central leadership, the Bengal unit remained adamant in supporting CPI(M) candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a former Kolkata mayor who had been in the forefront of filing cases in the chit-fund scam against Trinamool Congress leaders, in the election.

Sources said senior Trinamool leaders conveyed to their counterparts in Congress about the proposal to support Kumar, a prominent leader belonging to the Dalit community, on March 12, a day before the nomination papers were to be submitted, for the fifth seat.

The Congress central leadership, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi, were "interested" in the idea but the Bengal unit made it clear that it had given its word to CPI(M), with which it had entered into an electoral alliance to take on the Trinamool Congress and BJP, and cannot go back. Sonia and Mamata share a cordial relationship despite the latter leaving Congress to form her own party.

Interestingly, Congress' Leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is a known Mamata-critic, was also not opposed to the Trinamool proposal but the state leaders said they have already announced the party's support to Bhattacharya.

Sources said Trinamool leaders suggested the name of Kumar, who was the joint Opposition candidate in the 2017 Presidential elections, as they felt that she would have been projected as a "national voice" against BJP. They also calculated that Congress loyalist Kumar's name would be acceptable to Sonia too.

Trinamool also wanted to scuttle a berth for Bhattacharya in Rajya Sabha, as he is seen as a staunch critic of the party and had cornered it in the chit-fund scam. As Bengal Congress remained adamant, Trinamool did not want to give it an easy walk over to Bhattacharya and made former MLA Deepak Bajaj enter the fray as an independent, forcing a contest.

However, there is uncertainty over Bajaj's candidature as objections have been raised over his nomination papers. If his nomination is rejected, there will be no contest for the five seats.

In West Bengal, a winning candidate needs 49 votes. Trinamool Congress with 214 MLAs has assured the victory of its four candidates, who need a total of 196, leaving 18 surplus votes. However, sources said the Trinamool calculation was that Kumar could win if Congress joined hands with it as it could ensure its surplus votes to go to her. Trinamool also wanted to isolate CPI(M) in Bengal ahead of the Assembly elections next year, they said.

Bhattacharya could win the polls as the fifth candidate as CPI(M) has 25 MLAs and Congress 39 MLAs. Some of the Congress MLAs are said to be supporting Trinamool Congress though they have not exited the party officially.

Congress had earlier offered the seat to CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury but the party's central leadership decided not to send him by taking the former's support. On two previous occasions too, Congress had offered support to Yechury. As CPI(M) declined the offer, Congress had then managed to sent P Bhattacharya and Abhishek Singhvi to Rajya Sabha with Trinamool Congress's support.

However, this time the CPI(M) allowed Bhattacharya's nomination with Congress support while declining a renomination to Yechury, who was a two-term Rajya Sabha MP.

Sources said CPI(M) had insisted that its choice for the fifth seat should be supported by Congress and mulled over fielding candidates like former Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly but Bhattacharya got the final nod.

At a press conference on Monday, Yechury said Congress had made an offer but the CPI(M) Polit Bureau decided against it as the leadership felt that there was no question of reopening an issue settled by its Central Committee.

The Central Committee was against taking Congress's support when the question of fielding Yechury in 2017 for the third term, it had also then cited that Yechury occupied the post of General Secretary and that he had completed two-terms, an unofficial limit set for a party leader.

With CPI(M) now allowing Bhattacharya to take Congress support, Yechury was asked whether declining the Congress's offer to support him was person-specific. "You draw your conclusions," Yechury shot back.