KOLKATA: The All India Trinamool Congress on Friday announced four candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to be held in the state legislative assembly.
The names include controversial former director general of police (DGP) and retired IPS Rajeev Kumar, Babul Supriya, sitting MLA from Ballygunj in Kolkata, Menaka Guruswamy, Supreme Court lawyer, and Koel Mallick, Bengali actress.
The ruling party made the announcement in a post on X tonight saying, “We are pleased to announce the candidature of Babul Supriyo, Rajeev Kumar (Former DGP, West Bengal), Menaka Guruswamy and Koel Mallick for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. We extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to them. May they continue to uphold Trinamool’s enduring legacy of resilience and its unwavering commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of every Indian.”
The nominations have drawn attention given the mix of legal, administrative, political and cultural figures named by the party.
Babul Supriyo was elected to the Lok Sabha from Asansol on a BJP ticket in 2014 and 2019. He resigned as an MP and defected to Trinamool in 2021, and was elected to the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha from Ballygunge in 2022. He was also given a berth in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet.
According to sources in the Trinamool Congress, Babul was offered by the party leadership to contest from the Asansol North assembly constituency but he was not willing.
"Didi and Abhishek picked me up. I have tried my best for the IT industry. I am grateful to Didi for bringing music back into my life. I am not a politician-politician. I would prefer to be known as singer Babul. This is a new role and I will do my best," Babul Supriyo told the media.
Menaka Guruswamy was one of the litigants in the marriage equality case in the apex court. She also represented Bengal, along with Kapil Sibal, in the RG Kar Medical College rape-murder case and recently the I-PAC case in the apex court.
Rajeev Kumar served as the DGP of West Bengal from July 2024 until his retirement on January 31, 2026. He was in the spotlight during the 2019 CBI raid at his residence in connection with the Saradha chit fund probe.
The Central investigative agency had also grilled him for around 40 hours in a row in Meghalaya same year in connection with the chit fund case.
Mamata Banerjee had earlier declared Kumar “the best police officer in the world”. Kumar recently became controversial when he rushed to the Kolkata residence of Prateek Jain, director of the I-PAC, an election strategic consultancy agency engaged by Trinamool Congress, and I-PAC office at Salt Lake when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at the two places to probe the alleged coal scam case.