Ex-TMC MLA makes last-minute entry into RS poll arena, makes

A former TMC MLA on Friday threw his hat into the Rajya Sabha poll arena as an Independent candidate, in an apparent attempt by West Bengal's ruling party to force a contest with the joint Left-Congress nominee.

Dinesh Bajaj filed his nomination papers minutes before the 3 pm deadline.

TMC candidates Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor also filed their papers during the day. The party's other two candidates, Dinesh Trivedi and Subrata Bakshi, had filed their nomination papers on March 11.

Polling will be held for five Rajya Seats from West Bengal on March 26 and but for Bajaj's nomination candidates of all parties would have got elected unupposed.

A senior Trinamool Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said Bajaj will get the surplus votes the TMC has.

Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan of the Congress said Bajaj has been fielded by the TMC to defeat the joint Left-Congress candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya of the CPI-M to "help" the BJP. The saffron party, however, is not contesting the election.

"Their gameplan has been exposed but Bhattacharyya will win," Mannan said, adding that he has more than the required first preference votes for an easy win.

In West Bengal, a candidate requires 49 first preference votes for a straightforward victory in the Rajya Sabha election, and the CPI(M) and Congress together have 51 MLAs.

The 294-member House at present has 207 MLAs who had won the 2016 polls on TMC tickets. Over 20 MLAs of the Congress and CPI(M) later switched over to the TMC and the BJP.

Also, around 10 MLAs of the TMC are either not in touch with the party or have crossed over to the BJP, according to party sources. None of them has, however, been disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Bhattacharyya, a former Kolkata mayor, had filed his nomination papers on Thursday. He had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from Jadavpur seat, which the TMC won.

While Noor lost from the Malda North seat in last year's Lok Sabha polls, Ghosh had unsuccessfully contested from Balurghat and Dinesh Trivedi, a former railway minister, from Barrackpore. Bakshi did not contest from Kolkata South, the seat he had won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

With Bajaj entering the fray, analysts say, the TMC will try to persuade some opposition MLAs to cross vote to clinch the fifth seat and further humble the fledgling Congress-CPI(M) alliance.