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’s political career
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…
