By IANS,
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress leadership Friday nominated four candidates for the March 30 Rajya Sabha polls, including three journalists from West Bengal.
Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee announced the names of union minister of state Mukul Roy and journalists Kunal Ghosh, Mohammed Nadim-ul-Haq and Vivek Gupta.
Ghosh is the associate editor of Bengali daily ‘Sangbad Pratidin’, Haq Executive Editor of the Urdu daily ‘Akhbar-E-Mashriq’ and Gupta is the director of Hindi daily ‘Sanmarg’.
“Mukul Roy, Nadim-ul-Haq and Kunal Ghosh are the first three candidates. Gupta is the fourth candidate. Roy has been re-nominated,” Chatterjee told reporters.
On March 30, five Rajya Sabha members from the state would be elected to fill up vacancies arising April 2.
According to the arithmetic in the assembly, Trinamool with 185 seats can elect three members to the upper house of parliament.
In order to send its fourth candidate, it has to depend on the support of alliance partner Congress which has 42 assembly members.
A candidate needs 49 votes to cross the finishing line in the Rajya Sabha race in West Bengal.
The Left Front with 61 seats had already re-nominated Centre of Indian Trade Unions secretary Tapan Sen.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) has four seats, including an independent, and SUCI-C has one member. The GJM is likely to go with the Trinamool while the SUCI-C is yet to spell out its stand.