Former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar may soon find a spot in the Rajya Sabha, with support from the Congress leadership and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
West Bengal Congress leaders have reached out to the party high command and proposed Kumar’s name for the Upper House, PTI reported. “We have proposed Meira Kumar to our party high command as she has been our candidate for the recent presidential elections and is acceptable to everybody,” a Congress leader was quoted by the news agency as saying.
Other reports said that Mamata Banerjee reached out to top Congress leaders on the sidelines of President Ram Nath Kovind’s oath-taking ceremony in New Delhi on Tuesday. She is reported to have said that the Trinamool Congress will support Kumar and not field any other candidate from West Bengal if the Congress nominates her for the Rajya Sabha. Banerjee said, “It will be good if Congress, TMC and the Left together support Meira Kumar for the Rajya Sabha seat,” The Times of India reported.
Earlier, the Congress had seemed willing to support the Communist Party of India (Marxist) if it fielded its General Secretary Sitaram Yechury. However, the party has decided to not give Yechury a third term in the Rajya Sabha.
Six Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal will fall vacant next month. The election for these seats will be held on August 8, and nominations have to be filed for them by July 28.
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