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Rajya Sabha elections : Deals in the offing |
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Political parties are striking deals to get more of their members elected in the Rajya Sabha biennial elections to be held on March 26.
In West Bengal, there are reports that the Congress and the Trinamul Congress may team up for securing the fifth Rajya Sabha seat from the state.
The 294 MLAs will elect five representatives to the Rajya Sabha. Terms of three CPI(M) MPs in the Rajya Sabha - former Kolkata mayor Prasanta Chatterjee, Tarini Roy and Khabiruddin Ahmed - will be over this month. Forward Bloc’s all-India general secretary Debabrata Biswas is also a Rajya Sabha MP from the state and his term will also end this month. The fifth outgoing candidate is Trinamul’s Dinesh Trivedi.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) president and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, when asked whether his party will support Trinamul Congress once the latter fields its candidate for the fifth seat, said: “We will not do anything which might strengthen the CPI(M) and the Left Front in West Bengal.” Though Dasmunsi evaded a direct reply on the issue, he made it clear that the Congress under his leadership would not rule out the possibility of supporting a candidate fielded by the Trinamul Congress.
In Tamil Nadu, there is a tussle going on between the DMK and the PMK over a Rajya Sabha ticket for the PMK. DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi has said that it is not proper on the part of PMK founder S. Ramadoss to demand a Rajya Sabha seat.
Six Rajya Sabha seats are falling vacant in the State. The DMK and its allies can comfortably win five of the seats. Reveal¬ing that the Congress had sought an extra seat, Karunanidhi said he had agreed to the demand. That left only three seats to be shared among the DMK and its allies since he was not for a con¬test in the Rajya Sabha elections. He confirmed that the DMK wanted to contest two of the seats, which left only one for the allies.
The PMK was given a seat in 2004 (as per the agreement for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections) and the CPI in the last Rajya Sabha elections. Hence the only ally that was yet to be accommodated was the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“When Prakash Karat [CPI-M general secretary] spoke to me, I told him that we would consider giving the seat to them. I have not confirmed it to them,” he said, adding that the CPI (M) also needed to be accommodated.
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