West Bengal Panchayat Minister and veteran Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Subrata Mukherjee passed away at SSKM hospital in Kolkata, following a massive cardiac arrest, on Thursday, 4 November. He was 75.
Mukherjee served as the Bengal Panchayat and Rural Development Minister among the four ministries that he held under the Mamata Banerjee government.
The 'evergreen' leader enjoyed a long and illustrious political career, which ranged from being a student activist to a Cabinet minister.
Born in 1946, in Bengal's South 24 Parganas, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's political mentor, started his political career as a student activist in the 1960s as a member of the Chhatra Parishad, just like his protege.
As he rose quickly through the ranks of the party, especially because of his oratory skills, he made the acquaintance of late Union Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.
During this time, he grew very close to late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi too, so much so that he and Dasmunsi were often called "her two sons".
His association with Dasmunsi and his 'relationship' with Congress leader Somen Mitra was a constant topic in the political circle during the 70s and 80s. His 'feuds' with Mitra were quite famous too, many of which turned into factional battles within the Congress.
Mukherjee contested the West Bengal Assembly elections in 1971 and became MLA from Kolkata's Ballygunge at a mere age of 25. The next year, he was made the minister of state for information and culture in the Siddharta Shankar Ray Cabinet, making him the youngest minister in the Cabinet.
Life After Congress
In 1998, Mukherjee joined his protege's newly-formed Trinamool Congress and went on to become the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (2000-2005) where he earned heaps of praises for his developmental work.
Fun fact: It was Mukherjee who had proposed Mamata Banerjee's name as the Congress candidate against Somnath Chatterjee, the then CPI(M) stalwart from the Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat in the 1984 elections, which Banerjee won.
Mukherjee contested the 2001 Assembly elections with a TMC ticket, but this time from Chowringhee and won. However, he lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Kolkata's northwest constituency.
In 2005, just before the civic polls, he quit the party over differences with Banerjee to join the Nationalist Congress party. He formed an alliance with the Congress and several marginal parties to form the Paschimbanga Unnayan Mancha. While he won his seat, his coalition lost heavily.
Five years later, he went back to the TMC.
The 2011 Assembly elections saw him go back to his home constituency of Ballygunge, where he was made in-charge of panchayats and rural development. He retained his seat in the 2016 and 2021 Assembly polls.
Known for his oratory skills, Mukherjee loved talking to the press and has often been called a 'punctual' person.
Subrata Mukherjee is survived by his wife.
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