The BJP's Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev and Prakash Chik Baraik filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha by-polls in West Bengal on Monday.
The three leaders submitted their papers before the Returning Officer at the West Bengal assembly, officials said. The by-poll is scheduled to be held on Friday, July 24.
The three Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant after Ray, Dev and Baraik resigned from the Upper House of Parliament ahead of quitting Mamata Banerjee's TMC. This was seen as a direct consequence of the party's assembly election defeat. The trio are now poised to return to Parliament barely a month later, on BJP tickets this time.
They joined the BJP on July 9 and were named the party's candidates for the Rajya Sabha by-polls from West Bengal within hours.
According to the Election Commission's notification, each of the three vacancies will be filled through a separate election and treated as an independent contest, even though all three by-polls will follow a common schedule.
Rajya Sabha members are elected by members of the state legislative assembly through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Since each vacancy is being contested separately, a candidate requires the support of 147 MLAs to secure election.
With 207 legislators in the 294-member assembly, the BJP comfortably crosses that mark in every contest and is therefore in a position to win all three seats on its own.
