BJP Fields Three Former TMC Leaders for Rajya Sabha Bypolls in West Bengal

Three candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev, and Prakash Chik Baraik — filed their nomination papers on Monday, July 13, 2026, for the Rajya Sabha by-elections in West Bengal, scheduled for July 24, according to officials.

The three leaders submitted their papers before the Returning Officer at the West Bengal Assembly.

The three Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant after Ray, Dev, and Baraik resigned from the Upper House and quit the Trinamool Congress (TMC) following the party's defeat in the recent Assembly elections. They are now set to return to Parliament barely a month later, this time on BJP tickets.

They joined the BJP on July 9, 2026, and were named the party's candidates for the Rajya Sabha bypolls from West Bengal within hours.

This marked the first major induction of former TMC leaders into the BJP since the party swept the Assembly polls, signalling that the BJP's post-election embargo on Trinamool Congress entrants would not extend to leaders it considers politically credible and free from corruption.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) notification, each of the three vacancies will be filled through a separate election and treated as an independent contest, even though all three bypolls will follow a common schedule.

Rajya Sabha members are elected by members of the State Legislative Assembly through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Since each vacancy is being contested separately, a candidate requires the support of 147 MLAs to secure election.

With 207 legislators in the 294-member Assembly, the BJP comfortably crosses that mark in every contest and is therefore in a position to win all three seats on its own.