Behind TMC’s RS picks, Abhishek game plan, stepping up women outreach, national pitch

From RTI activist Saket Gokhale to journalist-author Sagarika Ghose – the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has sought to pick prominent, articulate faces in touch with national politics to represent the party in the Rajya Sabha.

In the wake of its landslide victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021, the TMC’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew, spelt out the party’s objective to fight the BJP at the national level.

The TMC has since projected its national aspirations through its choice of candidates for the Rajya Sabha too.

The party inducted two high-profile Congress leaders – former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro and former All India Mahila Congress president and Assam MP Sushmita Dev – into its fold and sent them to the Upper House.

Sushmita has been renominated by the party for the February 27 Rajya Sabha polls. Faleiro resigned from the TMC as well as his Rajya Sabha seat last year.

For the upcoming polls to the Upper House, the TMC has named Md Nadimul Haque, Mamata Bala Thakur and

Sagarika Ghose besides Sushmita Dev as its nominees. Following their election, the TMC would have five women MPs out of its total 13 members in the Rajya Sabha.

The TMC’s list reflects its continuing push for enhancing women representation in public life. The party thus hopes to reach out to a larger section of women.

Thakur belongs to the electorally influential Matua community, who is the daughter-in-law of late Binapani Devi Thakur, former matriarch of the Matua Mahasangha, who was known as “Boro Maa (elder mother)”.

By nominating Thakur to the Rajya Sabha, the TMC has sought to increase legislative representation of the community, a crucial vote bank for both the TMC and the BJP, which