Manas Bhunia, Derek O'Brien among Trinamool RS candidates

Kolkata, May 21
Manas Bhunia, a former state Congress chief who switched to the Trinamool Congress last year, was on Sunday nominated as a Trinamool candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls by party chief Mamata Banerjee.

Trinamool leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien, and two other sitting members, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Dola Sen, also figured in the list of five candidates announced by Banerjee.

"The following are All India Trinamool Congress candidates for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election: Derek O'Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Dola Sen, Manas Bhunia and Shanta Chhetri," West Bengal Chief Minister and party supremo Banerjee said in a Facebook post.

Shanta Chhetri, a three-time Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) legislator from Kurseong in the northern Bengal hills, unsuccessfully contested from the same constituency on a Trinamool ticket in last year's assembly polls.

Bhunia, who joined Trinamool last September, is the sitting legislator from Sabong.