Partha Chatterjee is a trusted lieutenant of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and ranks third in party leadership after her and nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
The political stature of senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee received a huge jolt on Saturday when he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its investigation into the alleged teachers recruitment scam in West Bengal.
Chatterjee, 69, was the education minister during 2014-21, the period in which the alleged scam took place. He currently holds industry and state parliamentary affairs portfolios.
Visuals have also surfaced of piles of cash amounting to over Rs 20 crore from the house of a close aide of Chatterjee, further damaging his standing both in public and in the party, with some saying that the recovery of cash has led to the TMC distancing itself from Chatterjee.
Partha Chatterjee has been into politics for five decades. He stepped into politics as a leader of Congress students' wing —Chatra Parishad— in late 1960s during his college years. He was inspired by then firebrand youth leaders Subrata Mukherjee and Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.
Chatterjee's political career halted after he decided to take up a high-profile corporate job in the mid-1970s.
Chatterjee decided to take a plunge into active politics after Mamata Banerjee broke away from the Congress and formed the TMC on January 1, 1998. He went on to win from the Behala Paschim 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 leader of the opposition. As Banerjee fought against the mighty Left Front regime on the streets of Bengal on the issue of forcible land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, Chatterjee became the voice of the opposition in the assembly.
Chatterjee was at the forefront when his party took on then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in the assembly on the issues of land acquisitions. During that period in 2007, he was appointed as TMC's Secretary-General by Banerjee.
After the party came to power four years later, he was given charge of industry and parliamentary affairs. However, in a cabinet reshuffle in 2014, he was removed from the industry department and given charge of education.
After the party returned to power for the third consecutive time in 2021, he was given the charge of industry and parliamentary affairs departments.
Partha Chatterjee is considered a loyalist of the party supremo Mamata Banerjee.
Chatterjee, along with a few others, was at the forefront in leading the old guards during the alleged inner-party struggle between the young brigade and the veterans that broke out in the TMC in January-February this year.
Chatterjee is number three in the TMC after Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. He is also key to TMC's party organisation.
The Express reported, "Chatterjee has been Mamata's 'go to' leader when it comes to dealing with the Bengal organisational affairs. From the constitution of the TMC district committees to working out election strategies, Chatterjee plays an important role in the entire spectrum of organisational matters."
Despite the loyalty, seniority, and centrality to the party, the TMC appeared to have distanced itself from Chatterjee.
CNN-News 18 reported, "It could have used this opportunity to bolster its allegation of the BJP using central agencies for political vendetta, but the alleged seizure of Rs 20 crore in cash from the premises of a close aide of West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee has pushed the Trinamool Congress on the back foot."
CNN-News 18 also noted that Chatterjee's arrest and recovery of Rs 20 crore comes as an embarrassment to TMC at a time when it's not just taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party but is also carving a greater role within the Opposition by challenging the traditional Congress leadership and carving its own way.
Besides the alleged teachers recruitment scam, Chatterjee's name had also cropped up in a ponzi scheme, which was being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. He has, however, denied the allegations as politically motivated.
(With PTI inputs)