Results will tone down Left's voice in Parliament

The terms of party’s politburo members, Brinda Karat, Sitaram Yechury and Mohammed Amin in Rajya Sabha will come to an end on August 18 this year.

A similar jolt to the CPM members in Rajya Sabha would be there again in April 2012 when the terms of party members Mainul Hassan, Tapan Kumar Sen and Saman Pathak will come to an end.

With its 15 parliamentarians, the party currently holds the fourth position in the Rajya Sabha in terms of strength after the Congress, BJP and BSP. Six members are from West Bengal, 4 from Kerala and one each from Tripura and Tamil Nadu respectively.

The situation with Left Front’s ally, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), could be even more adverse.

The term for the lone sitting the RSP member in the Upper House of Parliament, Abani Roy, too, is coming to an end in August 2011. Having performed poorly in the state assembly polls, the party may not have even a single representative in the Upper House.

The question that is already being asked in political circles is that in case of a terrible defeat in West Bengal, who among Yechury, Karat and Amin will have to be sacrificed for one Rajya Sabha seat.

If they want their return to the Upper House of Parliament, they will have to contest elections as the party will not get more than one seat to fill in the Rajya Sabha due to a miserable defeat in West Bengal.

However, the number of Trinamool Congress MPs in Rajya Sabha will go up. Swapan Sadan Bose and minister Mukul Roy are the only members so far.