- विज्ञापन -
Kolkata The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday has announced its candidates for the the Rajya Sabha polls from Punjab. These include names of journalist Sagarika Ghose, party leader Sushmita Dev and two others.
Elections to the five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal will be held on February 27.
“We are pleased to announce the candidature of @sagarikaghose, @SushmitaDevAITC, @MdNadimulHaque6 and Mamata Bala Thakur for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections”, the party posted on X.
shift in the party’s strategy
While Nadimul Haque, a two-time Rajya Sabha MP, finds himself back in the limelight but at the same time the decision not to renominate three sitting MPs — Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas, and Santanu Sen — marks a notable shift in the party’s strategy.
Ghose is a well known journalist. She is yet to officially join the TMC.
Dev joined the TMC in 2021
Former Congress leader Dev, who had joined the TMC in 2021, has been the party’s Rajya Sabha MP from October 2021 to August 2023, after TMC leader Manas Bhunia vacated the seat to join the West Bengal cabinet.
Dev, who is also TMC’s national spokesperson, looks after the party’s affairs in Assam.
However, the nomination that’s captured significant attention is that of former Lok Sabha MP and Matua leader Mamata Bala Thakur. A two-time Lok Sabha MP, Thakur faced defeat in the Matua-dominated Bongaon seat to BJP’s Shantanu Thakur, a relative, in 2019.
Thakur’s nomination comes amidst BJP’s efforts to court the Matua community with promises of implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The Matua community’s cohesive voting behaviour makes them a crucial voting bloc, particularly aligned with the BJP’s stance on the CAA.
