India, Oct. 4 -- Actor Koel Mallick has emerged as the Bharatiya Janata Party's pick for the Rajya Sabha biennial polls from West Bengal, months after she resigned from the Upper House as a Trinamool Congress MP.

Mallick, a popular Bengali film actor, had been nominated by former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's TMC for the Rajya Sabha earlier this year. She took oath as a member of the Upper House on April 6 but resigned from the post just months later, without attending a single session.

Her resignation came on July 16, shortly after TMC's major setback in the West Bengal assembly polls and amid a series of defections from the party.

The Election Commission has scheduled the Rajya Sabha by-election for the seat vacated by...