Singhvi to file nomination today along with TMC candidates

Kolkata: The state Assembly on Monday is going to witness the moment when Congress candidate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Trinamool Congress candidates are going to file their nominations for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election, at the same time.

The masterstroke of Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee of supporting Singhvi of Congress from Bengal in the election has led to a new political atmosphere in the state, ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to be held on March 23.

After announcing her party's support for Singhvi in the extended core committee meeting of Trinamool Congress, Banerjee had said that the decision has been taken for the sake of "greater interest".

Moreover, this comes at a time when senior leaders of all anti-BJP political parties are going to meet in Delhi on March 27 and 28. If everything goes as planned, Singhvi will be filing his nomination to the secretary of the Assembly at around 12:30 p.m on Monday. The Trinamool Congress candidates for the elections to the Upper House are Nadimul Haque who was renominated, Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas and Dr Santanu Sen. All four of them are also scheduled to be present in the Assembly almost at the same time, to file their nomination papers.

It may be recalled that the political scenario over the Rajya Sabha election in 2017 was also quite similar, with Trinamool Congress extending all its support to Congress candidate Pradip Bhattacharya.

Bhattacharya and all the five Trinamool Congress candidates – Derek O'Brien, Dr Manas Bhuniya, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Dola Sen and Santa Chetri, were elected unopposed from Bengal after the nomination of CPI(M) candidate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya was cancelled, over the issue of not filing his nomination papers on time.

This time, CPI(M) has announced the name of Rabin Deb as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha election and he will also be filing his nomination on Monday, which is the last day for the same.

Deb's name was announced after CPI(M) decided not to nominate the party's general secretary Sitaram Yechury for a third consecutive Rajya Sabha term, though there was a proposal from Adhir Chowdhury, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) president, to support him if he is nominated. Chowdhury had claimed it as a necessity to fight against BJP.

On Saturday, Singhvi thanked the Trinamool Congress supremo for extending her support to his candidature, after stating that he was happy to be nominated from Bengal, as "the arithmetic, history and geography of this state show the presence of an anti-BJP political space here".