Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee announced yesterday that her party will support Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s candidature for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from West Bengal.
While announcing names of four candidates from her party who will contest Rajya Sabha polls from the state, the chief minister said senior Congress leaders Abhishek Singvi and Kapil Sibal had fought many court cases for her party. She said there had been a request made to her seeking support for Singhvi’s bid and she has accepted it.
Banerjee fielded Nadimul Haque, Shubhashish Chakraborty, Aabir Biswas and Shantanu Sen as four nominees of her own party, before stating that she will also support Singhvi in this regard. With enough legislators in the West Bengal’s 294-member assembly, TMC will find it easy to secure Rajya Sabha seats for all these five candidates.
Some media reports had previously suggested that CPI-M’s Sitaram Yechury could file his nominations for the Upper House with Congress supporting him. But, Banerjee has decided to extend support to Congress itself and back Singhvi, This is surprising as Congress have been contesting Bengal polls as allies of the Left, which are the biggest political rivals for TMC.