Partha Chatterjee: From trusted lieutenant of Mamata to ‘scam-tainted’ minister | India News – Times of India

Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee

Kolkata: Senior political career spanning over five decades TMC leader Partha Chatterjee He appears to have got a major setback after the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday arrested him in connection with the probe into the alleged school job scam in West Bengal.
Chatterjee, 69, who currently holds Mamata’s industries and state parliamentary affairs portfolios Banerjee She was Education Minister from 2014 to 2021, during which there were alleged irregularities in teacher recruitment.
He entered politics as a leader Congress The student wing – the student council – was inspired by the then flamboyant youth leaders Subrata Mukherjee and Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi during their college years in the late sixties.
His political career stalled after taking a high-profile corporate job in the mid-seventies, but he remained in touch with the then Congress leaders.
Chatterjee decided to enter active politics after Banerjee broke away from the Congress and formed the TMC on 1 January 1998.
He won from Behala West assembly constituency for five consecutive terms since 2001 on a TMC ticket.
Chatterjee’s high point in his political career came in 2006 when he was appointed as the leader of the TMC party in the assembly and later the leader of the opposition.
When Banerjee fought against the powerful Left Front rule on the streets of Bengal over the issue of forced land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, Chatterjee The voice of the opposition was formed in the assembly.
Chatterjee was at the fore when his party cornered the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in the Assembly over the issue of land acquisition.
During that period in 2007, he was appointed as General Secretary of TMC by Banerjee.
After the party came to power four years later, he was given the charge of industry and parliamentary affairs.
However, in a cabinet reshuffle in 2014, he was removed from the industry department and entrusted with the responsibility of education.
Considered a loyalist of the party supremo, Chatterjee, along with a few others, was at the forefront of leading the old guards in January-February during an alleged internal-party clash between the youth brigade and veterans in the TMC. year.
He was given the charge of the industries and parliamentary affairs portfolios after the party returned to power for the third time in a row in 2021.
He is known in political circles as a friendly and affable leader.
His name also appeared in a Ponzi scheme which was being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
However, he has dismissed these allegations as politically motivated.
The ED had arrested the Trinamool Congress general secretary after nearly 26 hours of questioning at his residence since Friday morning in connection with its probe into the alleged school job scam.
He was later produced before a judge in the Bankshall court here and sent to ED custody for two days.