Former journalist Swapan Dasgupta, who had resigned from the Rajya Sabha to contest the West Bengal Assembly polls, has been re-nominated to the Upper House of Parliament, according to a Gazette notification issued by the Union home ministry on Tuesday.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-clause (a) of clause (1) of article 80 of the
Constitution of India, read with clause (3) of that article, the President is pleased to re-nominate Shri Swapan Dasgupta to the Council of States to fill the seat which has fallen vacant due to his resignation for his remainder term viz., 24.04.2022,” said the notification.

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Lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani was also nominated to the Upper House after a seat fell vacant due to the death of sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra.

Dasgupta had resigned from the Rajya Sabha on March 16 after questions were raised about him contesting the Bengal polls on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket despite being a nominated MP.

On March 15, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra had said that Dasgupta should be disqualified from the Upper House under the Constitution’s 10th Schedule. Pointing out the rules, Moitra tweeted that her party will submit notice to the Rajya Sabha chairperson to seek his disqualification. The Congress had also sought clarification from the Rajya Sabha chairperson.

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A member nominated to the House by the President is allowed to join a political party if he/she does so within the first six months of taking seat in the House. “A nominated member of a House shall be disqualified for being a member of the House if he joins any political party after the expiry of six months from the date on which he takes his seat after complying with the requirements of article 99 or, as the case may be, article 188,” reads paragraph 2 (3) of the 10th Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Dasgupta was earlier nominated to the Rajya Sabha in July 2016.

The incumbent Trinamool Congress had won 211 out of the state’s 294 seats in the Assembly elections, while the BJP managed to secure only 77 constituencies. Dasgupta was contesting from the Tarakeshwar seat and was pitted against Ramendu Sinharay from the Trinamool Congress. Sinharay defeated Dasgupta by 7,484 votes.