KOLKATA: Dola Sen, president of the ruling TMC’s trade union INTTUC(Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress) wing, on Saturday filed her nomination as the party’s first woman Rajya Sabha candidate.The election to the lone RS seat will be held on March 14.
Sen, a close confidant of West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, had lost the Lok Sabha elections from the Asansol constituency to the BJP’s singer-turned politician Babul Supriyo.
She has been fielded as a replacement for former TMC RS MP Srinjoy Bose, who was arrested by the CBI over his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Saradha scam. Srinjoy had also quit the party after he was granted bail in the sensational case.
Given the TMC’s brutal majority-- 194 MLAs-- in the 294-member state Assembly, it will be a cakewalk for Sen, who will have a tenure of three years, the remainder of Srinjoy’s unfinished term.
Earlier, Sen’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls at the hands of a political newbie, and that too a BJP nominee, had angered Mamata so much that she had sacked former state Labour Minister Moloy Ghatak, who hails from Burdwan district. However, he was later reinducted into the Cabinet.