West Bengal: TMC resends 3 MPs with 3 new faces to RS

Kolkata: West Bengal's ruling Trinamul Congress on Monday fielded six candidates in an equal mixture old and new generations for the Rajya Sabha (RS) Election on July 24. Among the six, Derek O'Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Dola Sen– were renominated.

While Mr O'Brien, a parliamentarian since 2011, is the TMC's leader in Rajya Sabha and national spokesperson, Mr Roy, the party's deputy chief whip, was first sent to the upper house of Parliament in 2012. Ms Sen, who is a senior TMC trade union leader, went to RS in 2017.

The three senior TMC members got another chance after their term ended with Susmita Dev, a party leader from Assam and Shanta Chhetri, a Gorkha face from Darjeeling. The rest three candidates– Saket Gokhale, Samirul Islam and Prakash Chik Baraik– are new faces.

Announcing the six names, TMC tweeted, "May they persist in their dedication to serving the people and uphold Trinamool's enduring legacy of indomitable spirit and advocacy for the RIGHTS OF EVERY INDIAN. We extend our heartfelt wishes to all."

Saket is the TMC national spokesperson and an RTI activist who was earlier arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges. He will contest at the seat vacated by former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro who had resigned as a TMC MP and quit the party in April.

On the other hand, Samirul, who comes of a farmer's family with minority background in Birbhum, is a greenhorn in politics. The post graduate from IIT-Delhi is a chemistry professor at Dinabandhu Andrews College in Kolkata and a member of a socio-cultural forum, Bangla Sanskriti Mancha.

According to TMC insiders, the 35-year-old came to chief minister Mamata Banerjee's notice for his role on behalf of his platform in her party's hit slogan 'No Vote to BJP' in the last assembly polls here.

Prakash, who represents the tribal community and is the TMC Alipurduar district president in North Bengal, was given the ticket by the party to woo the region's tribal votebank which has aligned with the BJP in the last few years.