TMC to back Cong’s Singhvi in RS poll

Trinamul Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday said her party would support Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from the state. She said this at the extended core committee meeting of her party at Nazrul Manch.

Announcing the names of four Trinamul candidates for the Rajya Sabha poll, she said, “Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Congress MP Kapil Sibal have fought many court cases for us. I was requested to support Singhvi. We will support Singhvi in the fifth RS seat from Bengal.”

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The four Trinamul candidates named for the elections are ~ Nadimul Haque, who was re-nominated, Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas and Santunu Sen.
Later in the day, the state Congress announced the name of Mr Singvi as its candidate from West Bengal.

CPI-M named senior leader and state committee member Rabin Deb as their Rajya Sabha candidate. Left Front chairman Biman Bose said that Left Front and Congress held a discussion over this matter but suddenly the Congress declared their candidate bypassing the discussion.

“So Left Front has no choice but to select Rabin Deb as the candidate,” he said.

Elections to five Rajya Sabha seats from the state has been necessitated as the terms of Kunal Ghosh, Vivek Gupta and Nadimul Haque of the Trinamul Congress and Tapan Sen of CPI-M is to end on 2 April. Mukul Roy, who joined the BJP from the Trinamul last year, has already resigned from the Rajya Sabha.

In a political move aimed to take the edge off the Congress-Left Front onslaught on her government, chief minister and Trinamul Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee supported Singhvi’s candidature during the day.

Though Singhvi does not appear to be a popular candidate, neither did PCC chief Adhir Chowdhury nor Congress Legislature Party leader Abdul Mannan voice any objection after they were informed of the party’s choice by senior AICC leader, C P Joshi late last night.

Both Chowdhury and Mannan had boycotted Singhvi’s programmes when he visited the state before 2016 state Assembly elections after he had appeared for the Narada accused.

Putting up a brave face, Mannan said instead of apolitical persons who had earlier been elected by Congress support to the Rajya Sabha and stayed away from it, Singhvi will be a source of strength to the party. Incidentally, Mannan will be the first signatory in Singhvi’s support.

Meanwhile, CPI-M nominee for Rajya Sabha, Rabin Deb visited Mannan at his chamber in the state Assembly during the day.

The announcement of the AICC ended speculations of Congress and Left lending their support to an apolitical candidate. PCC chief Adhir Chowdhury had even stated that the state unit had no objection to it if the Left fielded senior CPI-M leader, Sitaram Yechury.

If Trinamul support is being construed in political circles as a move to blunt the Congress-Left attack on the ruling party, the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, Mannan ruled out any such possibility.