Four Trinamool Congress candidates including actor Mithun Chakraborty and one CPM candidate on Monday filed nominations from the state for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Five Rajya Sabha seats will fall vacant in the state in April, for which elections are scheduled on February 7. Trinamool Congress candidates Mithun Chakraborty, painter Jogen Chowdhury, K D Singh and Ahmad Hassan on Monday filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections. CPM candidate and SFI all India general secretary Ritabrata Banerjee also filed his nomination for the RS seat.
"I thank Mamata Banerjee for keeping faith in me. I will try and work to live up to her and the expectations of the people of Bengal," Chakraborty said. Chakraborty, a national award winning actor, has been known for his closeness to former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and late CPM stalwart Subhas Chakraborty, who was also the sports minister during the Left Front regime.
Mithun was also seen campaigning for Subhas's wife during a by-election in 2009, after Chakraborty's death. When asked about his closeness with the Left leaders, Chakraborty said, "It was not a political relation, but a personal one. And they (Basu and Chakraborty) still have the same place in me. It is the greatness of Didi, that despite all these, she nominated me from her party."
As per the strength in the state Assembly, Trinamool with 186 seats, would be able to send three members to the Rajya Sabha. It has the support of six other MLAs. The Left Front with about 61 seats will be able to secure one. A candidate requires 49 first-preference votes to win a seat in the Rajya Sabha, which has 294 Assembly seats.
"The Left front has nominated me. I will work for the poor and oppressed," CPM nominee Ritabrata Banerjee said. Banerjee, a student leader, known for his oratory skills, had kicked off a controversy when he, along with other SFI leaders were accused of heckling West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state finance minister Amit Mitra in New Delhi last year while protesting against the death of student leader Sudipto Gupta in Kolkata.
Banerjee's nomination has also sparked-off a debate within the CPM and the Left Front with many LF partners, including senior CPM leader Abdur Rezak Mollah opposing it and terming the decision as a "wrong".
Asked to react on the dissidence within the party and LF on his nomination, Banerjee said, "I am a Left Front nominee. I don't want to say anything other than that and I am not aware of any such thing."
Comments
0 comment