By IANS,
Kolkata: Sharing power in West Bengal after 34 long years, a keyed-up Congress is now gearing up for the Rajya Sabha polls in the state where it is in a position to win a seat on its own strength for the first time in over a decade.
Six aspirants are in the fray for being nominated as Congress candidate with the party set to contest one of the half-a-dozen seats up for grabs in the July 22 polls.
“There are six names. We have submitted the list to the Congress high command. Now it will take the final decision,” said Congress general secretary in-charge of the state Shakeel Ahmed.
Though Ahmed refused to disclose the names, a source said state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya and party spokesman Om Prakash Mishra are the frontrunners.
Among other names doing the names are those of union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s personal secretary Prodyut Guha, and party leaders Maya Ghosh – the only woman in contention – and Debi Ghoshal.
West Midnapore district Congress president Swapan Dubey’s name has been sent directly to the party high command, said a source.
A Congress official said Ahmed himself is in the reckoning, but the latter denied this, saying a leader from the state should get the berth.
Bhattacharya played it down when asked whether he was a frontrunner. “I don’t see any track. We are all loyal soldiers of the party. Whatever the party high command decides, will be totally acceptable to us.”
Though Mishra refused to speak, the source said some district committees were supporting him as the former pro-vice chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University and a member of the national security board to the prime minister had the intellect and background to balance interest of the party and the requirements of the upper house of parliament.
Guha has already indicated a desire to return to state politics after functioning as Mukherjee’s aide for seven years and is eyeing the Rajya Sabha slot to make a comeback into active politics.
It was for the first time since the Rajya Sabha biennial elections in 1999 that the Congress has the numbers to elect a member on its own. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress – founded in 1998 – has overshadowed the Congress in all state assembly polls since 2001.
The Congress bagged 42 seats in the April-May state assembly polls to emerge as the single largest party after the Trinamool Congress. The two parties are partners in the state government after ending 34 years of Left Front rule.
With one of its lawmakers committing suicide a few days after being elected, the CPI-M now has 39 members, but is all set to win one Rajya Sabha seat as its Left Front partners have 22 legislators taking the combine’s tally to 61 in the present 293-strong house.
Sitaram Yechury is likely to be the CPI-M candidate, while the Trinamool is all set to nominate former bureaucrat Debabrata Bandopadhyay, editor of a vernacular daily Srinjoy Bose and party’s media cell in-charge and quizmaster Derek O’Brien.
The Trinamool Congress has 184 legislators and is set to win four seats.
While the notification for the polls was issued Tuesday, the last date for nomination is July 12 and for withdrawals July 15.