The Bharatiya Janata Party has nominated Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Prakash Chik Baraik for three Rajya Sabha by-elections in West Bengal, hours after the former Trinamool Congress leaders joined the ruling party.
The nominations complete a rapid political transition for the three former MPs, who resigned from the Upper House and left the Trinamool Congress in June after questioning the party’s leadership following its defeat in the West Bengal Assembly election. Their induction and immediate selection signal the BJP’s effort to absorb experienced opposition figures while consolidating its post-election dominance in the state.
The three joined the BJP at its Kolkata office in the presence of state party president Samik Bhattacharya and other senior leaders. The central leadership announced their candidatures later the same day, leaving little doubt that their move had been coordinated with the Rajya Sabha contests in mind.
Polling for the three vacancies is scheduled for July 24. Nominations close on July 14, scrutiny will take place the following day and candidates may withdraw until July 17. Voting, if required, will be held from 9am to 4pm, with counting beginning at 5pm.
The vacancies arose after Ray resigned on June 8, Dev on June 10 and Baraik on June 11. Ray and Baraik had terms extending until August 2029, while Dev’s term was due to run until April 2030.
Each vacancy will be treated as a separate election, even though the timetable is common. That procedure is important because legislators vote separately for every seat rather than through a combined proportional representation contest. The BJP’s commanding strength in the Assembly gives each of its nominees a clear numerical advantage.
The party won 207 seats in the 294-member Assembly election, while the Trinamool Congress secured 80. The Congress won two seats, with the remaining constituencies divided among smaller parties. The result ended 15 years of Trinamool rule and transformed the arithmetic governing West Bengal’s representation in Parliament.
The BJP therefore has more than enough legislators to elect all three candidates without requiring support from opposition members. Unless nominations are challenged or rival candidates create an unforeseen complication, the contests could become a formal confirmation of the ruling party’s choices.
Dev, a lawyer and former Congress leader, brings experience in national politics and the organisation of women voters. She served as president of the Congress women’s wing before leaving that party for the Trinamool Congress in 2021. The Trinamool later sent her to the Rajya Sabha, where she became one of its visible parliamentary representatives.
Her political base extends beyond West Bengal. Dev represented Silchar in the Lok Sabha and belongs to a family with a long political presence in Assam’s Barak Valley. Her move to the BJP gives the party a leader with familiarity across the north-eastern states as well as parliamentary experience.
Ray was among the Trinamool Congress’s longest-serving voices in the Rajya Sabha and had played a prominent role in managing its parliamentary interventions. A lawyer by profession, he was also associated with the party’s legal and constitutional arguments during periods of confrontation with the BJP-led central government.
His relationship with the Trinamool leadership had become strained before his resignation. He had raised questions about internal functioning and corruption allegations, placing him among senior figures who publicly expressed unease after the Assembly defeat.
Baraik, a leader from the tea-growing belt of north Bengal, adds a different political profile. He has worked among tea garden communities and tribal voters, groups that have become central to electoral competition across Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and adjoining districts.
His selection reflects the BJP’s continuing focus on north Bengal, where it has built a strong organisational base and expanded support among Scheduled Tribe communities and tea workers. The party won all 16 Assembly seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, underlining the region’s importance to its broader state strategy.
For the Trinamool Congress, the defections deepen the organisational pressure created by its Assembly loss. The party must now manage declining legislative influence, departures by senior figures and questions about how it intends to rebuild under Mamata Banerjee’s leadership.
