With the Congress withdrawing from the fray apparently under pressure from Mamata Banerjee, all the four Trinamool Congress candidates, including Railway Minister Mukul Roy, besides a lone CPI(M) aspirant were declared elected uncontested to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal on Thursday.
The candidates declared elected uncontested were Mukul Roy, besides three journalists Kunal Ghosh, Nadimul Haq and Vivek Gupta and the CPI(M)'s Tapan Sen, Assembly Secretary Jadavlal Chakraborty told the media.
Both Mukul Roy and CPI(M)'s Tapan Sen were re-elected to the upper house from the state. Senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan was earlier asked by the AICC high command to withdraw his candidature and he did so during the day, the last day of withdrawal.
The Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had reportedly expressed displeasure at the filing of nomination by the Congress. Five Rajya Sabha seats had fallen vacant from the state. There are 16 Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal.
He told reporters here that as a disciplined soldier of the Congress, he withdrew his candidature on instruction from the party high command.
He said that AICC-in-charge of the state Shakeel Ahmed rang him up this morning and asked him to withdraw from the fray. “I also got a call from the state party chief Pradip Bhattacharya to do the same,” he said.
“There is no reason to find any difference between the party and me on the issue,” he said. Thursday is the last day of withdrawal for Rajya Sabha poll slated for March 30.
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Trinamool Congress has fielded four candidates -- Railway Minister Mukul Roy and three journalists while the CPI(M) fielded its trade union leader Tapan Sen for five of the six seats that fell vacant. Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee had earlier hinted at her displeasure at the Congress decision to put up its candidate, noting that the party cannot win without the support of the Left Front.
Banerjee had said if there was an “understanding” between the Congress and the Left in the Rajya Sabha election, then it could happen for “bigger things,” which would “not be a good development.”