Mamata will back Singhvi to enter RS from West Bengal

New Delhi: The Trinamul Congress on Friday decided to send senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal indicating a political  understanding with the Congress at the national level.

The announcement was made by West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee after a meeting of the core committee of the party in Kolkata.

“Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal (also of the Congress) have fought many court cases for us. There was a request to me (for supporting Singhvi). We will support Mr Singhvi in the fifth RS seat from Bengal,” Ms Banerjee said.

However, the Congress is yet to announce the name of its RS candidates.

Apart from Mr Singhvi, Ms Banerjee announced the names of four TMC candidates who would be Nadimul Haque, who was renominated, Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Biswas and Dr Santunu Sen.

While Mr Haque is a journalist and writer by profession. Mr Chakraborty is an advocate and Mr Sen a consultant radiologist.

Elections to the five Rajya Sabha seats from the state has been necessitated as the terms of Kunal Ghosh, Bibek Gupta and Nadimul Haque of the TMC and Tapan Sen of CPI(M) will end on April 2.

Senior leader Mukul Roy, who quit the TMC and joined the BJP, had already resigned from the Upper House of Parliament.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actor and Samajwadi Party leader Jaya Bachchan also filed her nomination papers as the party’s candidate for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections from Uttar Pradesh.