Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee (Express Photo by Partha Paul/File)
The Trinamool Congress has benched Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee ahead of the upcoming panchayat polls, instead appointing senior party leader Subrata Bakshi as its election observer for South 24 Parganas, said sources. The party has allegedly begun to distance itself from Chatterjee — who is also TMC’s South 24 Parganas president — following the controversy surrounding his marriage. A source in the TMC said the decision was taken during a party meeting at Trinamool Bhawan which Chatterjee did not attend. “I was not feeling well today, so I skipped the meeting,” Chatterjee later told reporters.
In what was seen as another indication of the TMC’s displeasure, Chatterjee’s security cover was recently downgraded from Z-plus category to Z category. In addition to being Kolkata Mayor, Chatterjee also holds the state housing, environment and fire and emergency services portfolios.
Chatterjee had filed a divorce petition against his wife last year and moved from his ancestral property in Behala to a residence in Gol Park area. He recently requested police to provide him protection at his current residence, which led to questions about his marriage. Allegations of Chatterjee’s “closeness” to TMC worker and former TMC-affiliated West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA) general secretary Baishakhi Banerjee then began to surface from multiple sources, including his estranged wife Ratna.
Sources said the TMC was not pleased by the uproar and there were speculations that Chatterjee would resign. “On Monday, I had a talk with didi (Mamata Banerjee) and she asked me to continue with my work. She has not warned me and there was no discussion about Baishakhi Banerjee. So there is no question of me resigning from my post,” Chatterjee had said on Tuesday. “She (Baishakhi) is my family friend. Had she and her family not stood by me in time of crisis, the situation in which I am now would not have existed,” he added. His wife, on the other hand, claimed on Monday that Baishakhi was not a family friend.
“I have met her once or twice and she is not our family friend. She has been misleading my husband and has landed him in trouble. He (Chatterjee) has filed the case but I will not give him a divorce as my children need their father,” Ratna told reporters. Ratna, also a Trinamool member, stays at Chatterjee’s parental house in Behala with her minor daughter. The couple’s son is pursuing higher studies abroad. Baishakhi, who is married to a TMC worker and has a daughter, said she would continue to stand by Chatterjee.
“I am his friend and I will stand by him. He is close to my family,” she told reporters on Monday. Speaking to a Bengali news channel, Chatterjee’s father-in-law and TMC-ruled Maheshtala Municipality chairman Dulal Das alleged that Baishakhi was responsible for the break in relations between his daughter and Chatterjee. “If she is his friend as she is claiming, then why did she not try and mend their relation? She could have prevented them from seeking separation. I cannot identify her to be our family friend,” Das said.
The Opposition, meanwhile, has called on the Kolkata Mayor to resign immediately. “His family feud has now come into the open. The present controversy has maligned the post of the city mayor and he should resign immediately,” a KMC CPM councillor said.