TMC and Congress lock horns over 5th seat in Rajya Sabha

On March 30, West Bengal will elect five new members to Rajya Sabha. The ruling Trinamool Congress with its 185 members of Legislative Assembly in the state legislative assembly is in a position to elect three members to Rajya Sabha with ease.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist is going to bag one with the support of the Left Front partners. But the fifth seat is in for a tug of war between the TMC and its coalition partner Congress.

Shakil Ahmed, the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of West Bengal, met the chief minister and TMC supreme Mamata Banerjee on Monday to sound her of the possibility of leaving the fifth seat for the Congress.

Ahmed's term in the Rajya Sabha is about to end shortly and he is keen to get reelected from West Bengal, but Congress with its 42 MLAs in the assembly needs to have TMC's backing to get its candidate elected.

Though he did not divulge the details of his meeting with the chief minister, Shakil Ahmed admitted that the issue of coming Rajya Sabha election was discussed in the meeting.

However, some more names as possible candidate for the fifth seat have been floated from the Congress camp to gauge Mamata's mood. They are Santosh Mohan Deb, Debi Pal (both former union ministers), Abdul Mannan and Shakil Ahmed.

But Mamata has not made her decision yet. According to sources close to her circle, it is learnt that Mamata is seriously considering the option of fielding a candidate from her party for the fourth seat as well.

The souring of relation between the TMC and the Congress in recent times has much to do with that. The arithmetic of the Rajya Sabha election also weighs heavily in TMC's favor.

As of now, a minimum of 49 votes are required for each of the five candidates to win the election.

While the TMC can get their three candidates with first preference votes, their fourth candidate will have 38 first preference votes and rest will have to be managed by second preference votes.

Also, they are likely to get support from three MLAs of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, one of Adivasi Vikash Parishad and one independent taking their tally to 43.

On the other hand, the Congress is having 42 MLAs and unless they get additional support from TMC, they would be undone.

Abdul Mannan, a former Congress MLA and aspirant in this election, is of the opinion that much depends on the last moment vote management. Rabin Deb, a CPI (M) state committee member, said that the Left might go for single casting. But the final decision would be taken at the last moment.