Kolkata, July 17: Former TMC MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik were on Friday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal as BJP candidates, completing a swift political turnaround days after switching sides.
The three leaders were declared elected after the expiry of the deadline for withdrawal of nominations on Friday, with no other candidates remaining in the fray following the scrutiny of nomination papers on July 15.
The returning officer handed over certificates of election to the three newly elected Rajya Sabha members after formally declaring them elected unopposed.
Roy, Dev and Chik Baraik had joined the BJP in Kolkata on July 9, just hours before the saffron party’s Central Election Committee announced them as candidates for the July 24 Rajya Sabha bypolls.
The bypolls were necessitated after the trio resigned from both the Rajya Sabha and the TMC last month following the party’s defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections, creating vacancies in the three Upper House seats.
Their election marks another setback for the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, with all three returning to the Rajya Sabha on BJP tickets within weeks of quitting the party.
The induction of the three former TMC MPs was also the BJP’s first major inclusion of Trinamool Congress leaders since the saffron party swept the Assembly elections and formed its maiden government in West Bengal, signalling that its post-election reluctance to induct TMC leaders would not apply to those it considers politically credible and free from allegations of corruption.
Roy, who had been representing the TMC in the Rajya Sabha since 2012, was regarded as one of the party’s key legal and parliamentary strategists. His differences with the party leadership became public following the RG Kar rape and murder as he sought accountability from his own party, drawing criticism from within the TMC.
Though he later withdrew some social media posts citing threats to his family’s safety, the episode widened his rift with the leadership.
Dev, a former Congress Lok Sabha MP from Assam and former chief of the All India Mahila Congress, had joined the TMC in 2021.
She had also criticised the TMC leadership over alleged corruption before joining the BJP.
Chik Baraik, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha on a Trinamool ticket, also resigned from the Upper House and the party last month before crossing over to the BJP.
With the TMC split and many of its MLAs and MPs defecting, rival factions and the Congress see July 21 as a chance to demonstrate which grouping can mobilise people and claim the ‘anti-establishment’ mantle.
With the Trinamool party fractured, Congress hopes a public atonement would delegitimise Mamata’s break and attract disillusioned voters . (Agencies)
