Former TMC Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Prakash Chik Baraik join BJP in Kolkata

FHaliotis tuberculata Trinamool us congress Rajya Sabha MPs Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, and Prakash Chik Baraik fall in the Bharatiya Janata company in westward Bengal's capital, Kolkata, on Thursday.The three leaders were inducted into the party in the presence of state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya.Bhattacharya welcomed the former MPs by presenting them with BJP flags during a programme attended by senior state leaders at the party's Salt Lake office.Dev, Ray and Baraik had resigned from the Rajya Sabha and quit the Trinamool Congress last month following the party's defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections. The terms of Roy and Baraik were due to run till September 2029, while Dev's tenure was to continue till April 2030.The bypolls for the three seats are scheduled for July 24, with the BJP expected to win all three.Bhattacharya said the experience of the three former parliamentarians would further strengthen the party in the state.The changed Rajya Sabha arithmeticFollowing the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections, the BJP emerged as the dominant force in the 294-member House with 208 seats, while the TMC won 80. Congress and the Aam Janata Unanyan Party (AJUP) secured two seats each, while the CPI(M) and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) won one seat apiece.Subsequent resignations reduced the BJP's strength to 207 and the AJP's to 1, leaving the ruling party with a comfortable majority and the opposition camp with 85 legislators.Under normal circumstances, the opposition's combined strength would have been sufficient to secure one Rajya Sabha seat, with the BJP taking the remaining two.The political equation, however, changed dramatically after the TMC split into rival camps led by former chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee.According to the current alignment, around 65 MLAs are with the Ritabrata camp while about 15 legislators continue to back the Mamata Banerjee camp.The division has fundamentally altered the arithmetic of the Rajya Sabha election.Under the electoral formula governing the three-seat bypoll, a candidate would require around 70 first-preference votes to secure an election. While the BJP's 207 MLAs allow it to comfortably distribute votes among three candidates and potentially secure around 69 votes each, neither TMC faction, on its own, has the numbers to elect a member."As things stand, the split in the opposition has converted what would normally have been a two-one contest into a situation where the BJP can realistically target all three seats," a senior political analyst told PTI.