BJP Nominates Former BPF Member Biswajit Daimary as Rajya Sabha Candidate from Assam

GUWAHATI: The BJP on February 15 named Biswajit Daimary as its candidate for the by-election to the Upper House from Assam.

It is to mentioned that Daimary earlier joined BJP after quitting his Rajya Sabha seat as a Bodoland People's Front MP.

Daimary has been thrice elected to the House since 2008 and had quit soon after he preferred to join the saffron party.

Meanwhile, Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge will be replacing Ghulam Nabi Azad as the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The outgoing Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad is set to retire on February 15. Ghulam Nabi Azad became a Rajya Sabha member in 1990 from Maharashtra but in 1996, shifted to his home state, Jammu and Kashmir — which became a Union Territory in 2019.

Azad represented it from 1996 to 2006, resigning mid-way as he became the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Congress party has written to the chairman of the Upper House of Parliament for appointing Kharge to the post of leader of the opposition after Azad's retirement Kharge, a Dalit leader from Karnataka, was the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019.

On the other hand, giving a big blow to the West Bengal's TMC, Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi resigned from the party in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, claiming that he felt "suffocated" and "helpless" under the ruling dispensation in West Bengal.

"I am resigning from the party as there is violence in my state. I am grateful to my party that the party sent me here. I am feeling suffocated as we are not able to do anything about the violence in the state," Trivedi said while making the announcement on the floor of the Upper House.

The Trinamool may feel the heat of Trivedi's decision to step down from the party in the run-up to the Assembly elections in the state. While it would be interesting to see if he joins the BJP or takes another path, the saffron party's Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya has already said that Trivedi is welcome if he intends to join the BJP.

Also Read: Climate Activist Disha Ravi Arrested in "Toolkit" Case, Twitter Erupts in Protest

Also Watch: TAYPA Protest to Save Forest Resources