Four Left and one Trinamool members elected to RS from Bengal

Kolkata, Mar 28 (UNI) Four Left Front candidates and the lone Trinamool Congress nominee were elected to the five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal, biennial elections for which were held in the state Assembly today.

The five candidates, elected to the Upper House after getting the required number of first preferential votes from legislators, were Mr Tapan Kumar Sen, Mr Mainul Hassan Ahamed, Mr Saman Pathak (all CPI-M), Dr Barun Mukherjee (Forward Bloc) and Mr Mukul Roy of the Trinamool Congress.

Former city Mayor Subrata Mukherjee of the Congress lost the battle as he failed to garner enough first preferential votes in a keenly contested poll.

In the 294-member House, a total of 288 members were eligible for voting with six seats remaining vacant, while two SUCI members and one Congress Legislator were absent during polling to bring down the effective number of votes to 284.

Forward Bloc MLA Kalimuddin Shams committed a mistake while casting his vote and it was declared cancelled by Presiding Officer Jadav Lal Chaktravarty.

However, the votes of three CPI(M) members and Congress Legislator Ruby Nur were counted, though cancelled on technical grounds.

All the Left Front candidates together polled 190 votes, each needing about 48 first preferential votes, while the Trinamool candidates could garner 56 votes.

Congress candidate and former Kolkata Corporation Mayor Subrata Mukherjee fell far short of the required number and got only 33 votes, including six from among the non-Congreess members of the House.

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