Six in fray for RS election for five seats in Bengal

A total of six candidates are in the fray for five seats in West Bengal on the last day of withdrawal today for the Rajya Sabha elections on February 7 in the state.
Actor Mithun Chakrabarty, painter Jogen Chowdhury and RS MP from Jharkhand, who resigned to contest from West Bengal K D Singh are among the candidates of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
The party's nominee for the fourth seat is journalist Ahmed Hassan, who is expected to face contest, considering the party-wise break-up of the 294 members in the Assembly.
The ruling Trinamool has 187 MLAs, when the golden number for getting elected is 49, and as per its strength the TMC is in a position to send three party candidates to the Rajya Sabha safely.

The TMC is not getting a walkover with the Congress deciding to back sitting RS member Ahmad Saeed Malihabadi as an Independent nominee, whom the Left is also likely to support.
A former editor of Azad Hind newspaper, Malihabadi is a sitting Rajya Sabha member from Bengal elected in 2008 as an Independent supported by Congress and the Left.

But with Congress having 39 MLAs in the Assembly, 10 short of the required 49 for a candidate to win, a move by Congress and the CPI(M) began to field an Independent candidate acceptable to both camps.
The CPI(M) has fielded Ritabrata Banerjee, General Secretary of the CPI(M)'s student wing, SFI.

As the Left Front has 61 MLAs, it would have an extra 12 first preference votes which it could transfer to another candidate, even after casting all 49 first preference votes for Banerjee.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose had earlier said that his party would field one candidate and support the Congress-nominated Independent candidate for the other seat.