Actor Mithun Chakraborty elected in Rajya Sabha elections,Trinamool Congress wins four seats, Left Front one in Rajya Sabha in West Bengal,Mamata Banerjee,Mithun Chakravarty,Rajya Sabha polls
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- Category: National Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:54
Trinamool Congress wins four seats, Left Front one in Rajya Sabha in West Bengal
The elections to five Rajya Sabha seats in West Bengal on Friday were marked by cross-voting amid "horse-trading" allegations with a disunited opposition Left Front and Congress paving way for the ruling Trinamool Congress to win four seats and the Left Front one.
Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty and eminent painter Jogen Chowdhury were elected Rajya Sabha members on a Trinamool Congress ticket from the state.
Businessman K D Singh, Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand who resigned to contest from West Bengal and journalist Ahmed Hasan were the other two Trinamool candidates elected.
Left Front nominee Ritabrata Banerjee, General Secretary of the CPI(M)'s student wing SFI was the other winning candidate.
Left Front and Congress disunity came to the fore as cross voting by five Opposition legislators -- three from the Left and two from the Congress helped the ruling Trinamool Congress to score wins for all its four nominees.
The Congress suspended two rebel legislators, Sushil Roy and Emani Biswas for six years.
Congress-nominated independent candidate A S Malihabadi was defeated.
While Left Front nominee secured 57 votes, the Trinamool candidate Jogen Chowdhury got 50. Mithun Chakraborty and KD Singh were tied at 49 votes and Hasan polled 47 votes.
Congress-backed independent candidate Malihabadi got 37 votes.
The Left which was supposed to support the Congress backed independent nominee, cast all their 57 votes in favour of Ritabrata Banerjee, as their first candidate.
"All the 57 MLAs cast their votes in favour of Ritabrata as their first preference. The extra 8 votes were given to Malihabadi as second preference," said CPI(M) leader Rabin Deb.
The vote cast by the independent MLA Wilson Champamari was declared cancelled.
Six legislators cross-voted, including five from the Opposition. They confirmed to the media that they had cross-voted.
Three Left MLAs Sunil Mondal of Forward Bloc, Ananta Deb Adhikary and Dasarath Tirkey of RSP, and Congress members Sushil Roy and Emani Biswas voted for Trinamool's Ahmed Hasan, while a suspended TMC MLA Sikha Mitra voted for Malihabadi.
Denying that horse-trading took place, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said those from the Congress and the CPI(M) who voted for the Trinamool candidates, did so on ideological grounds.
"Those who voted for the Trinamool from the other side did so because they didn't like this nexus between Congress and CPI(M). Bengal is a politically mature state. Those who voted for Trinamool candidates did so on ideological grounds," Banerjee told reporters.
Asked about the horse-trading allegation, Banerjee denied it saying "We are a poor party."
On cross-voting, she said, "It is their matter. They have a democratic right. Let them decide. It is their internal matter."
Trinamool's total count in the Rajya Sabha will now be 12, she said while hoping that the new MPs would play a vital role during their tenure.
Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra belonging to the CPI(M), however, alleged "The TMC has indulged in horse-trading by buying LF MLAs to vote in favour of its candidates."
Source: India Today