Kolkata: In 2008, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) movement against the Tata Group’s Nano car project in Singur was at its peak. And it was one of the TMC’s many protests, when a picture of Partha Chatterjee sitting on a stool on Dankuni Highway after the police blockade made people stand up and notice the Trinamool leader.
The 69-year-old leader, older than TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, was among the first lieutenants to join her when she left the Congress and withdrew her party in January 1998. But Chatterjee had to work her way through the TMC ranks as she was not an instant hit, unlike her colleagues Mukul Roy, Subrata Mukherjee and Madan Mitra.
His stock soared after Roy exited from TMC in 2017. He was made the head of the party’s disciplinary committee and was its spokesperson for important announcements.
Chatterjee cut his teeth in politics in the late 1960s, when he joined the Chhatra Parishad, the student council affiliated to the Congress, during his college days. Firebrand leaders Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and Subrata Mukherjee were his inspirations at the time.
tanima Chatterjee, sister of late Subrata Mukherjee, said there was a huge difference between student leader Partha Chatterjee and the current minister.
“As far as I remember, it was Mamata Banerjee who brought Parth to my brother and introduced him. At that time Parth was a fierce student leader, very determined. But after becoming a minister, he rose to power and would conduct programs without keeping Subrata in the loop. Even when I asked him about his health he did not reply. I found him pretentious, which he was not before,” she told ThePrint.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Bhattacharya told ThePrint that Chatterjee had joined the student council during his college days. “Parth was part of the Congress Chhatra Parishad when he was studying in Ashutosh College, but he did not have a strong relationship with the party. In his early career, he met me twice for official work representing his organization – Andrew Yule,” he told ThePrint.
A trained HR professional, Chatterjee could have opted for a stable corporate life, but returned to the turbulent world of politics to join hands with Mamata.
Chatterjee entered the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Behala West in 2001 and has represented the constituency five times. A big political task came in 2006 when Mamta made him the Leader of the Opposition.
It was her role as Mamata’s messenger to her rivals that brought her closer to the TMC chief. Chatterjee also had good relations with former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Before Mamata was sworn in as chief minister in May 2011, Chatterjee personally met Bhattacharya and invited her to the ceremony. Veterans of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) attended the event organized at the Raj Bhavan,
CPI(M) leader Fuad Halim, son of former Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, recalled the gift of a medicine box to Chatterjee. As Leader of the Opposition, Chatterjee often had to work in coordination with the senior Haleem.
“My father was diabetic like Parth Da. Once, he saw my father’s medicine box arranged for a week with all his medicines and remarked how he always forgets his doses. I gifted Parth Slave A similar medicine box from London in 2019 that he still uses,” Halim said.
In 2011, Mamata allocated the commerce and industry portfolio to Chatterjee, only to hand over the responsibility in 2013 to former finance minister Amit Mitra, former Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) general secretary. The next year, Mamata handed over the education ministry to Chatterjee, who handled it till 2021.
alleged shocks School Service Commission (SSC) scam felt for the first time 2019, When there was talk of changing money in exchange for recruitment in teaching and non-teaching jobs in government schools.
Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee were arrested on July 23 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its probe into the alleged school job scam. Both Mamata and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee now have distanced himself Chatterjee, removed him from the cabinet and from all party posts.
On July 29, Chatterjee – once considered number three in TMC after Mamata and Abhishek – claimed that he was ‘the victim of a conspiracy’. As of now, TMC is playing safe, with Abhishek saying that Chatterjee will remain suspended from the party till the ED’s probe is over.
Read also: Admit cards, land documents from 2016 – why ED arrested TMC’s Partha Chatterjee in SSC case
love of the ‘good life’
A former colleague of Chatterjee spoke about the former minister’s fondness for good food and luxury cars.
“From What I Know About Parth” Slave Personally, he was a man of contradictions. He will be very polite when talking to you, and then you will hear from others that he spoke badly behind your back. If you ever sit at home with her, you will come out with bitterness against Mamata,” the former aide told ThePrint.
“He was very particular about food. He would check out the sweet boxes, put the good food packets that came in, put them aside. On Sundays, I remember the patriarchs and aspirants cooking mutton and hilsa Send him home. He loved to eat like a child,” said the former colleague.
“Parth Chatterjee loved luxury cars but would be seen traveling only in his official vehicle. But I know he used to change cars midway during private trips,” said the former aide.
The ED is now looking for four luxury cars – Audi A4, Honda City, Honda CRV and Mercedes Benz – which are missing from Arpita’s Kolkata residence in Diamond City complex.
(Edited by Tony Rae)
Read also: Actor, model, TMC minister’s ‘close aide’ – who is Arpita Mukherjee, arrested in SSC scam