WB-RS-YECHURY

CPI(M) keen on sending Yechury to Rajya Sabha from Bengal
    Kolkata, Jan 20 (PTI) In a bid to strengthen the fight
against Narendra Modi government in Parliament, the CPI(M)'s
West Bengal unit is keen to nominate party general secretary
Sitaram Yechury to Rajya Sabha from the state, with the help
of the Congress.
    Yechury had an excellent track record as a member of
the Upper House of Parliament between 2005 and 2017, and the
party is eager to nominate him in the Rajya Sabha elections to
be held next month, state CPI(M) sources said on Monday.
    In 2017, his name had cropped up for re-election. Even
then Congress president Rahul Gandhi was keen on supporting
his nomination from West Bengal. But the CPI(M) leadership had
turned down the offer citing party rules that no member would
be nominated three times in a row for the Upper House.
    "Extraordinary situation calls for extraordinary
measures. The country is going through an extraordinarily
difficult situation and we need a strong voice in Parliament
to oppose the Modi government's policies. There can be no
better person than Yechury for the job. Presently discussions
are on, let's see what happens," a senior CPI(M) leader told
PTI.
    The rule of not allowing anyone to be a member of the
Rajya Sabha beyond two consecutive terms would not apply now
as Yechury already got a break since 2017, he said.
    According to the present strength of the CPI(M) in the
state Assembly, the party cannot nominate someone on its own
to the Rajya Sabha.
    "We need to take the support of the Congress, which we
are hopeful of getting if Yechury is our candidate," the CPI
(M) leader said.
    A senior state Congress leader said the party was
willing to support the CPI(M) in 2017 Rajya Sabha polls had
Yechury been the candidate, but the Left party itself had
backed out.
    "This time also, if Yechury is the candidate, we don't
think we would have any problem, given the kind of equation
Sitaram Yechury shares with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi,"
the Congress leader said.
    The elections to five Rajya Sabha seats will be held
in February. Presently four of these seats are held by the
ruling Trinamool Congress. The fifth seat is held by Ritabrata
Bandopadhyay, who was earlier elected as a CPI(M) nominee in
2014, but was expelled from the party in 2017.
    Since his expulsion and post-2019 Lok Sabha polls, the
CPI(M) West Bengal unit does not have any representation in
either the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. This has happened for the
first time since the party's inception in 1964.
    According to the distribution of seats in the present
state Assembly, TMC will get four Rajya Sabha seats whereas a
joint candidate of the CPI(M) and Congress will win one seat.
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)