This issue was a tussle again after the exit of Dinesh Trivedi for the Congress and TMC.
Even after the exit of Dinesh Trivedi as Railway Minister, another bone of contention arose tonight between Congress and Trinamool with AICC announcing senior leader Abdul Mannan as the party nominee from West Bengal for the coming Rajya Sabha elections.
The decision was announced by Congress General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi notwithstanding Mamata Banerjee making it clear that her party would not support any Congress candidate and putting up four of her nominees.
This despite the fact that in the 294-member state Assembly, Trinamool Congress has 185 members and could ensure clear win of only three nominees.
In the Assembly, the strength of the Left Front is 60, Congress 42, Gorkha Janmukti Morcha 4, SUCI and independents 2. Of the independents, one has already pledged support to Congress.
Of the five Rajya Sabha seats in the state, Trinamool will clearly get three seats with first preference vote of 50 members required for each seat. Left can get one.
Trinamool will be left 35 additional votes after its three seats, while Left will have 10 more.
Congress feels that it can win one seat as it already has the support of 43 members.
CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, whose party is the arch detractor of Trinamool in state politics, had only last week reminded the Congress that there were precedents of the Congress and Left sending independent candidates like Gen Shankar Roy Chaudhary, Arjun Sengupta and A S Malihabadi to the Rajya Sabha.
He had indicated that his party was ready for such an experiment again.
A section in the Congress feels that Banerjee will not like the party putting up a candidate contending that it could lead to a contest and therefore a problem in her party.
Yesterday there had been a buzz in media and political circles that former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee could be put up as an independent candidate. The 82-year old leader had, however, said he was not aware of any such development.
Besides naming its all-India general secretary and Union Minister Mukul Roy, the Trinamool has nominated three persons outside the political arena as candidates for the biennial polls scheduled on March 30.
The three non-political nominees are journalists — Kunal Ghosh, Md Nadimul Haque and Vivek Gupta.
On March 10, Congress general secretary in-charge of West Bengal Shakeel Ahmed had urged the Trinamool chief to provide support to Congress for a seat in the Rajya Sabha elections.
The unilateral announcement by the Trinamool had invited strong reactions from the state Congress.
Party spokesperson Omprakash Mishra had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi saying that the party has a fair chance and should put up a candidate.
"We must take a chance, should we not contest it would be a capitulation of the worst kind and demoralise party supporters across the state. A political party cannot survive on the basis of the whims and fancies of its partners," the letter stated.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}