Singhvi, 4 TMC candidates win Bengal Rajya Sabha seats

Kolkata, March 23

Abhishek Manu Singhvi of the Congress party and four nominees of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress — Subhasish Chakraborty, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Md. Nadimul Haq and Santanu Sen — on Friday sailed to victory in the election held for the five vacancies from West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha.

Nadimul Haq won his second consecutive term, while the three remaining TMC candidates elected today are all debutants in the Upper House.

Singhvi, whose last stint in the Rajya Sabha was from Rajasthan, contested from West Bengal after the TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced support for him. She said the surplus votes of the TMC would be cast in favour of the Congress candidate. Thus, in an arrangement, which though strange but not new, the ruling party (TMC) and the main opposition party (Congress) in the state worked in tandem to ensure Singhvi’s victory.

CPI-M candidate Rabin Deb, backed by the Left Front, got only 30 votes and lost.

While Singhvi got 47 votes, Subhasish Chakraborty secured 54, Nadimul Haq and Biswas got 52 votes each and Shantanu Sen got 51.