Trinamool to nominate Manish Gupta to Rajya Sabha

Trinamool to nominate Manish Gupta to Rajya Sabha 

Bureaucrat(नौकरशाह)-turned-politician (राजनीतिज्ञ) Manish Gupta is the Trinamool Congress’ candidate for the Rajya Sabha election scheduled later this month. The decision was taken at the party’s core (अन्तर्भाग) committee meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday.Mr. Gupta, who was the former Chief Secretary of West Bengal, had joined the Trinamool Congress in 2011 and contested (चुनाव लड़ा) from the Jadavpur Assembly constituency against former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. He defeated the CPI(M) leader in 2011 by a margin of over 16,600 votes. He held the portfolio of Development and Planning along with Power in the first term of the TMC government between 2011 and 2016. Mr. Gupta, however lost the polls in 2016 election to CPI(M) nominee Sujan Chakraborty.

The 74-year-old politician, however, was nominated to a number of committees of the government by the Chief Minister. Recently, TMC MP and matinee idol Mithun Chakraborty tendered (प्रस्तुत)his resignation from the Rajya Sabha citing health reasons. Mr. Gupta will fill up the vacancy created with the resignation of Mr Chakraborty. Another announcement made after the core committee meeting was that TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya will contest from the Kanthi Dakshin Assembly seat. The seat was left vacant by Dibyendu Adhikari. Mr Adhikari contested and won the Lok Sabha elections from Tamluk Lok Sabha seat on a TMC ticket in the same district last year. Ms. Bhattacharya also lost the 2016 Assembly polls. She contested from the Dum Dum North Assembly seat and lost to CPI(M)’s Tanmoy Bhattacharya. She had held the portfolio of Minister of State for Health and Law and Judicial Affairs during the first term of the TMC government.