Ananta Rai becomes BJP's first elected RS member from West Bengal

Kolkata: All seven candidates - six of the Trinamool Congress including Derek O’Brien and Saket Gokhale and one from the BJP - were elected unopposed to the Upper House of Parliament on Monday, West Bengal Assembly officials said.

Ananta Rai 'Maharaj' (Ananta Barman Maharaj) became the BJP’s first elected member of the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. He has earlier been demanding a separate state of 'Greater Cooch Behar' to be carved out of the northern part of the state.

Six Rajya Sabha seats of the state are scheduled to go to the polls on July 24, the tenures of which are going to end in August. A by-election was also supposed to be held in another RS seat.

"After the scrutiny of nomination papers, the assembly secretary today announced that all six candidates of the TMC and one of the BJP have been elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed," an assembly official said.

Among those of TMC who got elected to Rajya Sabha were Derek O'Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Dola Sen. O'Brien, an MP since 2011, is the TMC's leader in Rajya Sabha, while Ray, who was first sent to the Upper House of Parliament in 2012 is the deputy chief whip. Sen, a senior leader and trade unionist, became an MP in 2017.

The newcomers on the list were Bangla Sanskriti Mancha president Samirul Islam, the TMC's Alipurduar district president Prakash Chik Baraik, and RTI activist and TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale.

Gokhale was elected in the by-poll to a Rajya Sabha seat that became vacant following the resignation of former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro as a TMC MP in April.

The TMC has 216 MLAs in the 294-member assembly and enjoys the support of five BJP legislators, who switched over to the ruling party but are yet to resign from the House. The saffron party has 70 lawmakers in the assembly.

According to the number, out of the six seats whose tenure is going to expire, the TMC was supposed to get five, and the BJP one. Gokhale got elected in the by-poll.

"The most important matter in Parliament is debate. We aim to ensure that there is a proper debate on all the bills and not just bills being passed through a voice vote," Gokhale said.