Kolkata: With EC announcing elections for five Rajya Sabha seats in Bengal on March 16, the state will, for the first time, not send a single Congress or Left member to the upper house.With Congress and CPM drawing a blank in the last assembly elections, Left-Congress candidate Bikash Bhattacharya will make way for a BJP member — the party’s third from Bengal after Ananta Maharaj and Samik Bhattacharya. Bengal has 16 Rajya Sabha seats.In a note on Wednesday, EC said that it would hold polls for 37 Rajya Sabha seats. The terms of Trinamool’s Subrata Bakshi, Saket Gokhale, Ritabrata Banerjee and Mausam Noor, and CPM’s Bikash Bhattacharya, are set to end on April 2. Mausam resigned from the RS on Jan 5, upon joining Congress.The election schedule indicates that notifications will be issued on Feb 26, with nominations closing on March 5. Scrutiny will take place on March 6, and the withdrawal deadline is March 9. Polling will be held from 9am to 4pm if they are contested, followed by counting at 5pm the same day. The process will conclude by March 20.Sources said there was a chance that TMC state president Subrata Bakshi might be renominated. CM Mamata Banerjee is likely to hold a party meeting soon to finalise the nominations. Gokhale has been an MP since July 2023, following the resignation of Luzinho Faleiro. Banerjee entered the RS as a replacement after former Prasar Bharati CEO and ex-IAS officer Jawhar Sircar stepped down in Sept 2024. Both Gokhale and Banerjee may be renominated since they served less than half of the 6-year term, said sources. They also hinted that a new TMC face might replace Mausam. Several TMC old-timers are lobbying for a spot.
