Three BJP candidates file nomination papers for RS bypolls in Bengal

Kolkata, Jul 13 (PTI) Three BJP candidates - Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik - filed their nomination papers on Monday for the Rajya Sabha bypolls in West Bengal, scheduled to be held on July 24, officials said. The three leaders submitted the papers before the Returning Officer at the West Bengal assembly, they said. The three Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant after Ray, Dev and Baraik resigned from the Upper House of Parliament and quit the TMC following the party’s assembly election defeat. They are now poised to return to Parliament barely a month later, on BJP tickets this time. They joined the BJP on July 9 and were named the party’s candidates for the Rajya Sabha bypolls from West Bengal within hours. This was the first major induction of former TMC leaders into the BJP since it swept the assembly polls, signalling that the party’s post-election embargo on Trinamool Congress entrants would not extend to leaders it considers politically credible and free from corruption. According to the Election Commission’s notification, each of the three vacancies will be filled through a separate election and treated as an independent contest, even though all three bypolls will follow a common schedule. Rajya Sabha members are elected by members of the state legislative assembly through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Since each vacancy is being contested separately, a candidate requires the support of 147 MLAs to secure election. With 207 legislators in the 294-member assembly, the BJP comfortably crosses that mark in every contest and is therefore in a position to win all three seats on its own. PTI BSM BDC