Bengal Cong extends support to candidate from Left Front

KOLKATA: West Bengal Congress will support the Left candidate in the upcoming Rajya Sabha (RS) elections in the state, which could ensure the only Left representation from Bengal in any House of Parliament.

“We will support the Left candidate,” Congress Rajya Sabha member Pradip Bhattacharya said.

The Congress-backed Left candidate is expected to win without a contest, as the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) has named candidates in four of the five RS seats from Bengal that are going to polls on March 26, along with 50 other seats in 16 more states.

“The name of our candidate would be announced in a day or two,” said Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI(M), central committee (CC) member, Sujan Chakraborty.

At present, there is no Left member from Bengal in either Lok Sabha or RS.

According to senior Left and Congress leaders, the CPI(M) wants to nominate an expert on Indian legal and judicial system. The party has already finalised the name of such a person, who is also an eloquent speaker.

“The name has been sent to the Congress top leadership for their formal approval,” said a CPI(M) CC member, who didn’t wish to be named.

According to a senior leader of Bengal Congress, the party had urged the Left to nominate CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, from Bengal, but the CPI(M) politburo turned down the proposal during a meeting on March 6.

Going by the strength on the floor of the Bengal assembly, TMC’s victory in certain in four of the five seats, but in the fifth seat the ruling party’s votes will fall short of the required mark. A Left-Congress united candidate can wrest the fifth seat.

A senior TMC leader said on Monday that the party is unlikely to field a candidate in the fifth seat, if the Left and the Congress jointly put up a candidate.