BJP fields Dinesh Arya from Uttarakhand, Koel Mallick from West Bengal for RS polls

New Delhi: BJP, on Sunday, announced two candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections from Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

From Uttarakhand, the party has fielded a long-time party worker Dinesh Arya for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state. Arya currently has a state minister equivalent rank and is the former district president of Nainital. The reason for his candidature is that he is an SC and is from Haldwani. Haldwani is the place where Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that BJP leaders purified the stage after his meeting because he is a Dalit. With Arya as candidate, the party is trying to counter the argument presented by the Congress and set up a positive narrative among SC voters ahead of state assembly elections.

In West Bengal, the ruling party announced the name of Rukmini Mallick, alias Koel Mallick as its candidate for the 2026 Rajya Sabha biennial election. Rukmini, an actor turned Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP, had in July resigned from her MP post and met BJP Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav. This has raised a debate in political circles, with CPI-M, Democratic Trinamool and other parties criticising BJP's move.


This is the fourth nomination by BJP, after three other TMC Rajya Sabha MPs Sukhendu Sekha Ray, Prakashchik Baraik and Susmita Dev resigned from TMC and joined BJP, winning with BJP Rajya Sabha ticket.

Sujan Chakraborty, CPI-M leader and former MLA, said this trend of TMC leaders and MPs joining BJP and fighting polls shows how there is 'Trinamoolisation' of BJP in Bengal.