Behind TMC’s RS picks, Abhishek game plan, stepping up women outreach, national pitch

The TMC has since projected its national aspirations through its choice of candidates for the Rajya Sabha too.

The party inducted two high-profile Congress leaders – former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro and former All India Mahila Congress president and Assam MP Sushmita Dev – into its fold and sent them to the Upper House.

Sushmita has been renominated by the party for the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls. Faleiro resigned from the TMC as well as his Rajya Sabha seat last year.

For the upcoming polls to the Upper House, the TMC has named Md Nadimul Haque, Mamata Bala Thakur and

Sagarika Ghose besides Sushmita Dev as its nominees. Following their election, the TMC would have five women MPs out of its total 13 members in the Rajya Sabha.

The TMC’s list reflects its continuing push for enhancing women representation in public life. The party thus hopes to reach out to a larger section of women.

Thakur belongs to the electorally influential Matua community, who is the daughter-in-law of late Binapani Devi Thakur, former matriarch of the Matua Mahasangha, who was known as “Boro Maa (elder mother)”.

By nominating Thakur to the Rajya Sabha, the TMC has sought to increase legislative representation of the community, a crucial vote bank for both the TMC and the BJP, which has a strong presence in North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts.

The TMC’s bid to nominate Sagarika Ghose is in line with the party’s past nominations to figures from various non-political fields, such as ex-Union culture secretary Jawhar Sircar, Saket Gokhale. TV personality and quiz master Derek O’Brian, and social activist Samirul Islam.

An author of several books, Sagarika has worked for prominent news publications such as The Times of India and The Indian Express, and the television media. Like Derek, she is likely to be the party’s voice in the national media.

A TMC leader said, “Our second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee’s idea is to ensure that our party’s representation in Rajya Sabha is pan-Indian while having those members who can fight BJP effectively.”

A TMC insider said, “Three retiring party MPs – Subhashish Chakraborty, Shantanu Sen and Abir Biswas – were denied Rajya Sabha renomination. They all are known to be close to Mamata Banerjee. Subhashish was the first election agent of Mamata. So, the move has made an impact among some senior party leaders.”

The TMC insider added, “However, our leadership saw that the party’s interest would be served better by replacing these three retiring members with women nominees. This time Abhishek’s strategy is behind the selection of our Rajya Sabha nominees. Obviously, Mamata gave her green signal to it.”