Mamata nominates four candidates for RS polls

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Sunday nominated Arpita Ghosh, Mausam Noor, Dinesh Trivedi and Subrata Bakshi as the party's candidate for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha polls.

Banerjee announced the names in a tweet on International Women's Day. She tweeted: "I am glad to announce that @AITCofficial will be nominating Arpita Ghosh, Mausam Noor, Dinesh Trivedi & Subrata Bakshi to the Rajya Sabha."

Stating her party's stride in empowering women, in the same tweet she mentioned: "As a part of my constant endeavour towards woman empowerment, I am proud that half of our nominations are women #International Women's Day."

The Chief Minister in her tweet also stated that women in Bengal are getting financially empowered with a series of steps taken by the Bengal government including Kanyashree and Rupashree. In her tweet Banerjee also stated: "Women are the pillars of our society. They are our pride. On #IWD2020 let me congratulate all my mothers and sisters around the world."

While stating about women empowerment, Banerjee mentioned in her tweet that "from Kanyashree to Rupashree, our Govt in #Bangla is committed to the welfare and empowerment of women. Our Govt in #Bangla is financially empowering rural women through self-help groups."

Kanyashree is one of the dream projects of the Chief Minister and it has helped in empowering lakhs of girls across the state. It is the project for which the state was awarded with the first prize in the United Nations (UN) Public Service Award for the Asia pacific at The Hague.

The project has helped in checking school dropout rates and at the same time girls have got financial assistance from the state government to become self-dependent after completion of their studies. Moreover, those who continue with their higher studies also received support from the state government.

Similarly, the 'Rupashree prakalpa' of the state government has helped the women from the financially weaker section during the time of their marriages. Recently, community marriages of tribals took place in Malda where as many as 300 tribal women received the benefits of Rupashree.

In her tweet Banerjee has also stated that "The Swasthya Sathi health insurance cards are also issued in the name of women, recognising them as the head of the family #IWD2020." With the recognition given to women as head of the family, their family members were heavily benefitted.

Banerjee, as the Railway Minister, had several times raised the issue of reservation for women in Rajya Sabha. She had even asked, "Why there was no 33 per cent reservation for women in the Rajya Sabha?".

Three out the four candidates, whose names Banerjee announced on Sunday, had contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Dinesh Trivedi had contested from Barrackpore while Arpita Ghosh and Mausam Noor were Trinamool Congress candidates from Balurghat Lok Sabha constituency and Malda North Lok Sabha constituency respectively. During her recent visit to South Dinajpur and Malda, Banerjee had praised Ghosh as she is continuing to work for the people in the district despite losing the elections. Similarly, she had given necessary directions to Noor to ensure the better result of the party in the forthcoming elections in Malda. According to senior leaders of TMC, Dinesh Trivedi is one of the senior-most members of Trinamool Congress and a veteran politician with a wide experience of working in Delhi. Subrata Bakshi is a former MP from the Kolkata South Lok Sabha constituency. But he didn't fight in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 and looked after the functioning of the party. Mala Roy had contested from the seat as Trinamool Congress candidate.

Five out of the 55 seats of Rajya Sabha that go to the polls on March 26 are from Bengal. On Sunday, Trinamool Congress nominated four names for the elections. But for the fifth one, there has to be a joint candidate and it could be of CPI(M) and Congress. The political analysts are also keeping a watch whether Congress and Trinamool Congress jointly nominates any candidate mainly when Congress and CPI(M) have gone together against Trinamool Congress in previous elections. BJP doesn't have the required number of MLAs to be a contender in the Rajya Sabha polls.

A notification in terms of the Rajya Sabha polls has been issued from the state Assembly on Friday and the work to file nomination started from the same day. It will continue till March 13, and there is a possibility that the extended Budget session would start from the same day.