Scrapping of TMC-backed Independent's papers paves way for

The nomination of Dinesh Bajaj, an Independent candidate supported by the ruling TMC for the Rajya Sabha polls in West Bengal, was cancelled on Tuesday, paving the way for the election of all five nominees of major political parties unopposed.

Bajaj's nomination was cancelled by the returning officer as his affidavit was self-attested and not notarized.

With his nomination being cancelled, four TMC candidates and the joint nominee of the Congress-CPI(M) combine are set to sail through.

Polling for five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal is scheduled for March 26.

TMC has fielded its former Lok Sabha MPs, Arpita Ghosh, Dinesh Trivedi, Subrata Bakshi and Mausam Noor, a former three time Congress MP who had switched over to TMC in 2019, for the four RS seats.

The CPI(M), with the support of the Congress, had fielded Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya for the fifth seat.

"With Bajaj's nomination being cancelled, there will be no contest. All the five candidates will win uncontested," said a senior TMC leader.

Bajaj is a former TMC MLA.

Though the current strength of parties in the state assembly entails 49 first preference votes for a candidate for a straightforward win, the absence of a sixth person in the fray will ensure that all those in the electoral arena win.

According to TMC sources, the party had fielded Bajaj as an Independent candidate to scuttle the chances of arch rival CPI(M) winning a seat and to thwart the BJP, which has only seven MLAs, from fielding a candidate.

Both Bajaj and Noor's nominations were under the scanner. Noor had not mantioned her middle name-Benazir-in the affidavit, while Bajaj had self-attested his nomination papers and not got them notarized.

The 294-member House at present has 207 MLAs who had won the 2016 polls on TMC tickets. Over 24 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.

Bhattacharya, 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, has lost from Barrackpore. Bakshi did not contest from Kolkata South, the seat he had won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.