Some TMC Rajya Sabha MPs likely to be in Assembly poll candidate list
Kolkata: At a time when an “aggressive” political climate prevails in Bengal surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) outlining the party’s campaign strategy, a number of party’s young and dynamic leaders who were currently Rajya Sabha MPs may make it to the candidate list of the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.
Sources within Trinamool Congress said that the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee, who has played a very “constructive” role in the past few sessions in the Parliament and “cornered” the BJP government by relentlessly raking up pertinent issues may be fielded by the party in the upcoming polls. Banerjee’s questions in Rajya Sabha on various issues allegedly embarrassed the ruling dispensation at the Centre.
After the raw jute crisis deepened, Banerjee wrote to Union Textiles minister Giriraj Singh, warning that the raw jute sector is sliding into a “serious economic and social crisis”. He also urged Centre’s intervention on the crisis in the Bengal raw jute industry. He had also slammed the BJP-led Centre over “destructive” Labour Codes.
It was also learnt from the party sources that two other Rajya Sabha MPs Samirul Islam and Prakash Chik Baraik, may also find a place in the candidate list of Trinamool Congress. Islam, who is also the chairperson of the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board, played a key role in the party’s protest against the “harassment” of migrant labourers in other states. West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board had moved the Supreme Court against 12 BJP-ruled states after a conspiracy was hatched in those states not to allow these migrant labourers to work.
Baraik, who is from North Bengal, had raised his voice in the Rajya Sabha against the Centre’s deprivation of funds to the Bengal government. He had also raised the concerns of the tea garden workers in north Bengal.
The political atmosphere in the state remains highly charged and volatile ever since SIR was notified. Both the ruling Trinamool Congress and the principal opposition party BJP stepped up their attack on each other. Recently, the state witnessed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting in Singur where he brought certain allegations against the Mamata Banerjee government.
The Chief minister who is also Trinamool Congress chief from her political rally countered Modi’s remarks.
