The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to win all three Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal in the July 24 bypolls, as both factions of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) have decided not to contest, people familiar with the matter said.
The BJP controls 208 of the state’s 294 assembly seats. Of the 80 TMC candidates who won the April elections, at least 65 have joined the rebel camp headed by Ritabrata Banerjee, whom the Speaker recognised as the leader of the opposition in June.
“The question of fielding candidates for Rajya Sabha does not arise because the numbers don’t work out,” Ritabrata Banerjee said. TMC Rajya Sabha member Dola Sen, a Mamata Banerjee loyalist, alleged that Ritabrata Banerjee and the MLAs in his camp engineered the divide only to help BJP secure more seats in Parliament. “Why will they contest? They are with the BJP. They want all the perks and facilities they enjoyed while TMC was in power. All they have to do in exchange is to make a few statements that sound like opposition,” Sen said.
“We won 80 seats. We could have won at least one Rajya Sabha seat had these people not helped the BJP,” she added.
In the three-seat bypoll, a candidate will need around 70 votes to win. In the assembly polls, the Congress and the Aam Janata Unnayan Party won two seats each although the latter has only one MLA who contested both seats and won. The CPI(M) and the Indian Secular Front won one seat each.
The Election Commission announced the bypolls on Monday. The seats fell vacant after three TMC Rajya Sabha members — Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik — resigned in quick succession in June when the TMC’s defeat in the assembly polls triggered an unprecedented crisis in the party.
The terms of Roy and Baraik would have naturally ended in 2029 while Dev could have continued in the Upper House till 2030.
Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Debjit Sarkar dismissed Sen’s allegations.
“People of Bengal have rejected the TMC and given us the mandate. We don’t need anyone. Our focus is solely on the coming five years,” Sarkar said.
The BJP currently controls three of the 13 Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal. The remaining 10 TMC MPs are all known to be Mamata Banerjee loyalists.
