Journalist Sagarika Ghose.
Credit: X/@sagarikaghose
New Delhi: Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced the candidature of journalist Sagarika Ghose and former MP Sushmita Dev besides two others for the Rajya Sabha election from West Bengal while benching three sitting MPs.
Only sitting MP among the four retiring Trinamool MPs to get renomination is Mohd Nadimul Haque. The fourth candidate from the Trinamool is former Lok Sabha MP Mamata Bala Thakur while sitting MPs Abir Ranjan Biswas, Subhasish Chakraborty and Dr Santanu Sen were denied another term.
Congress MP and senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi is the fifth MP to retire from West Bengal quota. While Trinamool can get all its four candidates to win the elections, BJP can get the fifth spot with Congress in no position to get a candidate win as it has no MLAs in Bengal.
Sagarika (59), who worked previously with Times of India, Outlook, The Indian Express, BBC and CNN-IBN, is an author of several books and presently writes articles and columns. Her father Bhaskar Ghose was a former IAS officer while she is married to journalist Rajdeep Sardesai.
Sushmita (51), a former Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MP, will be returning to the Upper House after a brief gap. This could also be an indication that she would not be contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Assam.
Haque (54) is a vocal voice for the party in Rajya Sabha. Mamata Bala Thakur (56), a Dalit, had won a Lok Sabha bypoll from Bangaon in 2015 but had lost the 2019 elections.
Trinamool sources said the leadership has spoken to the MPs who were denied renomination and told about their “future role and the party’s roadmap for them”.
Asked about Sagarika’s candidature, Trinamool Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien said several people in civil society are now of the view that rather than sitting in gallery, they should join the good fight after being inspired by Mamata Banerjee setting an example of the good fight and transformation of West Bengal under her and “Sagarika Ghose is one of them.”
After the entry of four new MPs, the number of women in Rajya Sabha from Trinamool will rise to five. Party sources said four of the 13 MPs will be from minorities while two of them are from outside West Bengal.