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Swapan Dasgupta, who resigned from Rajya Sabha to contest Bengal polls, re-nominated to Upper House
Dasgupta resigned in March after objections were raised about him continuing as a Rajya Sabha member despite being announced as a candidate for the West Bengal assembly elections.
Former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, who resigned from the Upper House in March to contest the West Bengal assembly elections, has been re-nominated to the House, a government notification showed.
Also Read | Amid furore over his candidature, Swapan Dasgupta resigns from Rajya Sabha
"In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-clause (a) of clause (1) of article 80 of the Constitution of India, read with clause (3) of the article, the President is pleased to re-nominate Shri Swapan Dasgupta to the Council of States to fill the seat which has fallen vacant due to his resignation for his remainder term viz., 24.02.2022," the notification, issued in the Gazette of India, said.
On March 16, Dasgupta resigned as a member of the Rajya Sabha days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced him as its candidate from the Tarakeshwar assembly constituency. However, according to the 10th schedule of the constitution, with disqualification of MPs, “A nominated member of a House shall be disqualified for being a member of the House if he joins any political party after the expiry of six months from the date on which he takes his seat after complying with the requirements of article 99 or, as the case may be, article 188.”
The two articles relate to oath-taking of the lawmakers.
Dasgupta, who was nominated to the Upper House in April 2016, is yet to formally join the BJP. Several opposition leaders, including Mahua Moitra of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), cited the rulebook to question Dasgupta continuing as an MP.
In the eight-phased assembly elections, which took place between March 27 and April 29, Dasgupta was defeated by TMC's Ramendu Sigha Roy. The TMC, under chief minister Mamata Banerjee, won a third consecutive term while the BJP finished second, registering its best-ever performance in West Bengal. However, it won just 77 seats out of 292 constituencies for which counting of votes took place on May 2.
