By Zaidul Haque, TwoCircles.net,
Kolkata: Renowned Journalist and Executive Editor of a Muslim Bengali Daily `Kalom,’ Ahmed Hassan Imran has been nominated to the Upper House of the Parliament by Trinamul Congress.
Trinamul Congress has announced four candidates to contest the Rajya Sabha seat from West Bengal. The other three candidates are Actor Mithun Chakraborty, Artist Jogen Chowdhury and Industrialist from Jharkhand K
Ahmed Hassan Imran
The term of four Rajya Sabha memebers from the state Shyamal Chakraborty, Prasanta Chatterjee, Barun Mukherjee, Tarinikanti Roy of CPIM and Independent Ahmed Syeed Malihabadi will end on April 2.
On January 19, All India Secretary of TMC Mukul Roy announced the name of the candidates.
West Bengal has 294 MLAs, but one MLA has now resigned. It should have four members in the upper house. With 187 MLAs in the state Assembly, TMC can safely send three representatives to the Rajya Sabha (Votes of 49 MLAs required for one seat in the Upper House).
The fourth candidate of the pro-Trinamul Muslim daily is now left with 39 votes from TMC. Meanwhile, three Gorkha Janamukti Morcha MLAs have extended their support to the TMC nominee. Four Congress MLAs who have joined TMC Wilson Champamari, Hamidul Islam, Chand Mohammad and Soumitra Khan have also agreed to support the TMC nominee. He is, however, still short of two votes.
The Left parties together have 61 votes, and thus have excess of 12 votes. Both the Congress party with 39 votes and Left still appear undecided to contest elections. With the contest it would be interesting to see if Imran clinches victory.
State President of Congress Pradip Bhattacharya said that they have only 39 MLAs votes in hand and hence they may not field candidates. However, if the High Command directs them to contest elections, they may field candidate.
CPM state Headquarter source said that they have only 12 votes and hence it would be difficult to for them to win, unless they get the support of the Congress, which is unlikely.
Veteran CPIM leader and former Minister Abdur Rajjak Molla told journalists that TMC has tactically nominated a popular Muslim face, to get support from other parties as well. He also said that if he wins, he expects Imran to work for the Muslims in the state.
The nomination of Imran to the Upper House has been welcomed by the community leaders as well. Imam of Nakhoda Mosque Maulana Muhammad Shafique, AIMPLB Member Maulana Ishak Madani, Golam Ahmed Mortaja and several other community leaders hoped that he wins.
Kalom is a Bengali language ‘Muslim’ daily newspaper published in Kolkata by the Kalom Welfare Association. It was launched as a monthly magazine in 1981 and became a weekly in 1983. The Saradha Group bought it in 2011 and turned it into a daily newspaper with a circulation of up to 40,000. In 2013 after the Saradha Group financial scandal it was again bought by Kalom Welfare Association, on the initiatives of the TMC government.