Disregarding the Congresss request to support its candidate for the Rajya Sabha,the Trinamool Congress today announced candidates for four out of five seats,elections for which are scheduled on March 30.
CITU leader Tapan Sen was the first candidate to file nomination papers for the election.
While Mukul Roy,minister of state for shipping,is getting re-elected for a second term,the other three candidates from the Trinamool Congress are from the print media Nadimul Haque from Urdu Akhbar-e-Mashriq,Vivek Gupta from Hindi daily Sanmarg and Kunal Ghosh of Sambad Pratidin and Channel 10. The last date for filing nomination is March 19.
Our leader Mamata Banerjee has a great respect for the media and that is why she has selected those journalists, Partha Chatterjee,minister for commerce and industries,said while announcing the candidates. On the question of leaving one seat to the Congress,Chatterjee said it would be done when more seats from West Bengal fall vacant.
Asked why the Congresss appeal was not considered,Chatterjee said the Congress request for one Rajya Sabha seat from West Bengal was considered last time. This time we retained the seat in rotation, Chatterjee said.