Kolkata, Feb 11 (IANS): Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced the names of four candidates for the forthcoming elections in Rajya Sabha which are going to be vacant soon.

The four candidates announced are Md Nadimul Haque, Mamata Bala Thakur, Sushmita Dev and Sagarika Ghosh. Haque is the only sitting Rajya Sabha member of the party to get re-nomination.

Both Thakur and Dev are former MPs, with Dev being an erstwhile Congress leader from Assam. Sagarika Ghosh is a journalist by profession.

The three sitting Rajya Sabha members of Trinamool Congress who did not get re-nomination are Dr Santanu Sen, Subhasish Chakraborty and Abir Ranjan Biswas.

Elections will be held for five seats in Bengal which are to fall vacant in April, along with 51 others in the rest of the country.

As per the current numerical distribution of MLAs in West Bengal Assembly, the victory of four Trinamool Congress candidates and one BJP candidate is assured.

BJP is yet to announce the name of its candidate for the fifth seat that will be vacant soon. It is learnt that the state unit of the BJP has already sent a list of candidates to the party high command and the latter is expected to choose one from the list shortly.