TMC picks Menaka Guruswamy for Rajya Sabha; could become India’s 1st LGBTQ MP
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Senior Supreme Court advocate Menaka Guruswamy has been nominated by the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) as one of its candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. This move could make her India’s first openly queer Member of Parliament if elected.
The party, led by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, announced her candidature on Friday evening along with three other nominees — minister Babul Supriyo, former West Bengal Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar and actor Koel Mallick in a post on X.
“We are pleased to announce the candidature of Babul Supriyo, Rajeev Kumar, Menaka Guruswamy and Koel Mallick for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. We extend our heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to them,” the TMC said, adding that it hopes the nominees will uphold the party’s “legacy of resilience” and its commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of every Indian.
Guruswamy is widely recognised for her role in the landmark constitutional challenge that culminated in the Supreme Court’s 2018 judgment decriminalising homosexuality in India. She was among the lawyers who argued the case that led to the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, a colonial-era provision that had criminalised same-sex relations.
Her nomination to the Upper House brings a prominent constitutional voice and a public figure closely associated with LGBTQ rights to the forefront of the TMC’s parliamentary strategy.
She began her legal career in 1997 under former Attorney General Ashok Desai, focusing on constitutional and litigation matters. After completing her Bachelor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford and an LLM from Harvard Law School, she briefly worked at international law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York before returning to India to practise in New Delhi.
In 2019, Guruswamy was named among the 100 most influential Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy. The same year, she and her partner, lawyer Arundhati Katju, were featured in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Her portrait is displayed at Milner Hall in Rhodes House at Oxford, making her the first Indian and only the second woman to receive that distinction.
More recently, Guruswamy represented the TMC in court proceedings challenging searches conducted by the Enforcement Directorate at the offices of political consultancy firm I-PAC.
Polling for 37 Rajya Sabha seats across several states, including West Bengal, is scheduled for March 16, as announced by the Election Commission of India.
In West Bengal, five Rajya Sabha seats are set to fall vacant, four of which are currently held by the TMC. Given its numerical strength in the 294-member Assembly, the ruling party is widely expected to retain four seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to secure one.
Among the other nominees, Babul Supriyo, a former Union minister in the Narendra Modi government, joined the TMC in September 2021 after resigning from the BJP. He later won the Ballygunge Assembly bypoll and currently serves as a minister in the West Bengal government.
Rajeev Kumar, a former IPS officer, previously served as Director General of Police of West Bengal and earlier headed Kolkata Police. He was at the centre of a high-profile standoff between the state government and central agencies during the probe into the Saradha chit fund case.
Koel Mallick, a prominent actor in the Bengali film industry and daughter of veteran actor Ranjit Mallick, completes the party’s list of nominees.