Kolkata: Journalist Sagarika Ghose is among the four Rajya Sabha candidates announced by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) yesterday for the upcoming elections to the Rajya Sabha.

The other three candidates are Sushmita Dev, former President of the Congress Women’s Wing and  former Lok Sabha member who joined West Bengal’s ruling party in August 2021; Dalit Matua community leader and former Lok Sabha member Mamata Bala Thakur and sitting Rajya Sabha member Nadimul Haque.

In contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party has nominated the party’s Bengal chief spokesperson, Samik Bhattacharya, for the fifth Rajya Sabha seat from the State.

Ghose, known for her biographies of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was personally selected by the top leadership of the party, according to senior TMC functionaries.

Of the 16 Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal, the TMC currently holds 14. Elections for 56 Rajya Sabha seats spread across 15 States are scheduled for Feb. 27.