Given the current party strengths in the state legislative Assembly, the Trinamul Congress can easily win four Rajya Sabha seats but for the fifth seat, it is yet to be finalised whether Trinamul Congress will tie up with the Congress as it did in the last two Rajya Sabha polls.
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The Trinamul Congress is going to field candidates for at least four Rajya Sabha seats on 26 March. The TMC has 13 Rajya Sabha MPs at present. Given the current party strengths in the state legislative Assembly, the Trinamul Congress can easily win four Rajya Sabha seats but for the fifth seat, it is yet to be finalised whether Trinamul Congress will tie up with the Congress as it did in the last two Rajya Sabha polls.
It is expected that during the party’s extended meeting on 2 March, the party supremo Mamata Banerjee may announce the names of suitable candidates for the four Rajya Sabha seats. A senior party leader said that Dinesh Trivedi, Jogendranath Chowdhury and Manish Gupta may be proposed for three of the seats. The party chief is seriously thinking about Mausam Benazir Noor as the fourth candidate.
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In the previous two Rajya Sabha polls, Trinamul Congress helped the Congress to send two of its candidates – Pradip Bhattacharya and Abhishek Manu Singhvi ~ to the Rajya Sabha. It is learnt that Chief Election Commission will issue the notification on 6 March and 13 March will be the last date for filing the nomination. The scrutiny of the papers will take place on 16 March and the last date for withdrawal of the nomination papers has been fixed on 18 March.
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It is learnt that the election will take place between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the respective state assemblies on 26 March and the election results will be published at 5 p.m. on the same day.
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