Rajya Sabha polls: BJP fields Dinesh Arya from Uttarakhand, Koel Mallick from Bengal

On October 4, 2026, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated former Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Koel Mallick to the Rajya Sabha. Mallick had been elected to the Upper House by the Trinamool Congress in April of the same year. She had submitted her resignation to the Vice President and chairman of the Upper House, C. P. Radhakrishnan, on July 16, 2026.

Mallick is the fourth Trinamool Congress MP to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the BJP, following her resignation from the Upper House. The BJP had previously nominated three other former Trinamool Congress MPs - Sushmita Dev, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, and Prakash Chik Baraik - to the Rajya Sabha on July 9, 2026, shortly after they joined the BJP in Kolkata.

Mallick had met with BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, after resigning from the Rajya Sabha. The nomination of former Trinamool Congress MPs to the Rajya Sabha has sparked a debate about the "Trinamoolisation of the BJP," with some party leaders arguing that the party is accommodating those who fought against it before the party came to power in West Bengal.