Kolkata, March 8 (IANS): West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Sunday nominated its national general secretary Subrata Bakshi, theatre personality Arpita Ghosh, former union minister Dinesh Trivedi and Mausam Noor as its four candidates for the coming Rajya Sabha polls.

Announcing the list of candidates on her Twitter handle on International Women's day, party supremo and state chief minister Mamata Banerjee pointed out that of the four candidates, two - Ghosh and Mausam - are women.

"I am glad to announce that @AITCofficial will be nominating Arpita Ghosh, Mausam Noor, Dinesh Trivedi & Subrata Bakshi to the Rajya Sabha. As a part of my constant endeavour towards woman empowerment, I am proud that half of our nominations are women #InternationalWomensDay.

All four are former Lok Sabha members.

Except Bakshi, the other three had lost the Lok Sabha polls last year to BJP rivals.

Bakshi is a two-time MP, having won from South Kolkata in a by-poll in December, 2011, after Banerjee resigned from the Lok Sabha seat after becoming the chief minister. He was re-elected in 2014, but did not contest the polls last year.