Kolkata, 05 March (H.S.): Five candidates on Thursday filed their nomination papers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in the West Bengal Assembly on the last day of filing nominations.

Four candidates — Rajeev Kumar, Koel Mallick, Menaka Guruswamy and Babul Supriyo — filed their nominations on behalf of the ruling Trinamool Congress, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded Rahul Sinha as its lone candidate.

Kumar, Mallick and Guruswamy reached the Assembly in the first half of the day, while Supriyo arrived later. The nomination formalities of the four Trinamool candidates were completed at the chamber of Chief Whip Nirmal Ghosh before they submitted their papers to Assembly Secretary and Returning Officer Soumendranath Das around 12.30 pm.

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, minister Aroop Biswas and MP Nadimul Haque were among those present during the filing of nominations.

BJP candidate Rahul Sinha filed his nomination later in the day. Though he had reached the Assembly earlier and began preparations at the chamber of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, the submission of papers was delayed due to some documentation issues.

After the formalities were completed, Sinha filed his nomination shortly before 2.30 pm in the presence of BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya and several party MLAs.

Scrutiny of the nomination papers will take place on Friday, while the last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 9. As five candidates have filed nominations for five Rajya Sabha seats, a contest is unlikely and all candidates are expected to be elected unopposed.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey