Kolkata: In 2008, the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) agitation against the Tata Group’s Nano car project in Singur was at its peak. And it was during one of the many TMC protests that a photo of Partha Chatterjee sitting on a stool on the Dankuni highway after a police blockade made people sit up and notice the burly Trinamool leader.
Older than TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, the 69-year-old leader was among the first lieutenants to join her when she left the Congress and floated her party back in January 1998. But Chatterjee had to work his way up through the TMC ranks as he wasn’t an instant hit, unlike like his colleagues Mukul Roy, Subrata Mukherjee, and Madan Mitra.
His stock rose after Roy’s exit from the TMC in 2017. He was made the party’s disciplinary committee head and was its spokesperson for making important announcements.
Chatterjee cut his teeth in politics in the late 1960s when he joined the Chhatra Parishad, a student outfit affiliated with the Congress, in his college days. Firebrand leaders Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Subrata Mukherjee were his inspiration back then.
Tanima Chatterjee, sister of the late Subrata Mukherjee, said there was a huge difference between Partha Chatterjee the student leader and the present minister.
“As far as I recall, it was Mamata Banerjee who brought Partha to my brother and introduced him. At that time, Partha was a fierce student leader, very determined. But after he became a minister, he grew in power and would conduct programmes without keeping Subrata in the loop. Even when I would ask him about his health, he wouldn’t respond. I found him pretentious, which he wasn’t earlier,” she told ThePrint.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya told ThePrint that Chatterjee had joined the Chhatra Parishad in his college days. “Partha was part of the Congress Chhatra Parishad when he was studying in Ashutosh College, but didn’t have any strong bond with the party. In his early career, he met me twice for official work representing his organisation — Andrew Yule,” he told ThePrint.
A trained human resource professional, Chatterjee could have opted for a steady corporate life but returned to the tumultuous world of politics to join hands with Mamata.
Chatterjee entered the West Bengal Assembly in 2001 from Behala Paschim and has represented the constituency five times. A major political assignment came in 2006 when Mamata made him the leader of the opposition.
It was his role of Mamata’s emissary to her rivals that brought him close to the TMC chief. Chatterjee also shared a good rapport with former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Before Mamata was sworn-in as chief minister in May 2011, Chatterjee personally met Bhattacharya to invite him for the ceremony. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran attended the event at the Raj Bhavan.
CPI(M) leader Fuad Halim, the son of former assembly Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, recalled gifting a medicine box to Chatterjee. As leader of the opposition, Chatterjee had to often work in coordination with the senior Halim.
“My father was a diabetic like Partha da. Once, he saw my father’s medicine box arranged with all his medicine for a week and commented how he always forgets his doses. I gifted Partha da a similar medicine box from London in 2019 that he still uses,” said Halim.
In 2011, Mamata allotted the commerce and industry portfolio to Chatterjee, only to hand over the responsibility to former finance minister Amit Mitra, a former Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) secretary general, in 2013. The next year, Mamata handed the education ministry to Chatterjee, who handled it till 2021.
The tremors of the alleged School Service Commission (SSC) scam were first felt in 2019, when there was talk of money changing hands in exchange for recruitment in teaching and non-teaching jobs in state-run schools.
Chatterjee and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 23 July in connection with its probe into the alleged school job scam. Both Mamata and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have now distanced themselves from Chatterjee, removing him from the cabinet and from all party posts.
On 29 July, Chatterjee — once considered number three in the TMC after Mamata and Abhishek — claimed that he was a ‘victim of a conspiracy’. As of now, the TMC has played safe, with Abhishek saying that Chatterjee would remain suspended from the party till the ED investigation is over.
Also Read: Admit cards from 2016, land documents – Why ED arrested TMC’s Partha Chatterjee in SSC case
Love of ‘good life’
A former aide of Chatterjee spoke about the former minister’s love of good food and penchant for luxury cars.
“From what I know of Partha da personally, he was a man of contradictions. He would be very polite while speaking to you, and then you would hear from others that he spoke badly behind your back. If you ever sat with him at home, you would come out with bitterness against Mamata,” the former aide told ThePrint.
“He was very particular about food. He would check sweet boxes, keep aside the good food packets that would come. On Sundays, I remember the vice-chancellors and those aspiring the post would cook mutton and hilsa for him and send it home. He used to love eating like a child,” the former aide said.
“Partha Chatterjee used to love luxury cars, but would be seen only traveling in his official vehicle. But I know he would change cars midway during personal trips,” the ex-aide added.
The ED is now searching for four luxury cars — an Audi A4, a Honda City, a Honda CRV, and a Mercedes Benz — that are missing from Arpita’s Kolkata residence in Diamond City complex.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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