Six Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal will go to the polls on July 24; a by-poll will also be held in another seat from the state. Rai heads one of the GCPA factions, demanding that a separate state or union territory be carved out of northern West Bengal. He is believed to have considerable say among the Rajbanshi community of the North Bengal region, estimated to account for nearly 30percentt of the electorate in the area.
