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Firhad Hakim 1 January 1959) is an Indian politician serving as the current and 38th Mayor of Kolkata. He is also serving as Cabinet Minister of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs and Housing,
Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...
. He is a MLA of the
All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress ( English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cu ...
party from Kolkata Port. Hakim was elected to the
West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian states and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative as ...
in 2009. Two years later, he became a cabinet minister in the Mamata Banerjee ministry. In December 2018, he was appointed mayor following the resignation of the incumbent Sovan Chatterjee.


Personal life

Hakim's grandfather migrated from the
Gaya district } Gaya district is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. It was officially established on 3 October 1865. The district has a common boundary with the state of Jharkhand to the south. Gaya city is both the district hea ...
of
Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...
to
Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
and started his business. His father, Abdul Hakim, was a law officer for the Kolkata Port Trust. He is married to Ismat Hakim. They have three daughters—Priyadarshini, Shabba and Afsha. They live in Chetla, a neighborhood of
South Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commerc ...
. He is nicknamed Bobby after the Australian cricketer Bobby Simpson. Hakim graduated from Heramba Chandra College with a degree in commerce. He is the organizer-in-chief of the Chetla Agrani
Durga Puja Durga Puja ( bn, দুর্গা পূজা), also known as Durgotsava or Sharodotsava, is an annual Hindu festival originating in the Indian subcontinent which reveres and pays homage to the Hindu goddess Durga and is also celebrat ...
committee.


Minister of West Bengal

In the late 1990s, Hakim was first elected as a councilor of the
Kolkata Municipal Corporation Kolkata Municipal Corporation (abbreviated KMC; also Calcutta Municipal Corporation) is the local government of the Indian city of Kolkata, the state capital of West Bengal. This civic administrative body administers an area of . Its motto, ...
. On 11 November 2009, he was elected to the
West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian states and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative as ...
from the Alipore constituency after defeating
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
candidate, Kaustav Chatterjee by a margin of 27,555 votes in the by-poll. In the
2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Assembly election was held in Indian state of West Bengal in 2011 to elect the members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly as the term of the incumbent government was about to expire naturally. It was held in six phases between 18 April and 1 ...
, Hakim won from the Kolkata Port constituency as a candidate of the
All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress ( English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cu ...
. He received 63,866 votes and defeated his nearest rival Moinuddin Shams of the
All India Forward Bloc The All India Forward Bloc ( AIFB) is a left-wing nationalist political party in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party ...
by a margin of 25,033 votes. Subsequently, he became the Minister of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs in the first Mamata Banerjee cabinet. On 3 March 2013, the Ultadanga Flyover (located in East Kolkata) collapsed, leaving three people injured. Hakim blamed a crack that was detected in the flyover as a reason behind the collapse. He said that the problem was "not related to maintenance but a technical fault in the bolt system". In June 2014, he announced that 22 new municipalities would be created in
West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...
. In the
2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election A Legislative Assembly election was held in 2016 for the 294 seats (out of 295 seats) of the '' Vidhan Sabha'' (Vidhān Sabhā) in the state of West Bengal in India. The All India Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee won 211 seats, and thu ...
, Hakim defeated his nearest rival, Rakesh Singh of the Left Front-
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...
alliance by a margin of 26,548 votes. On 16 June 2017, he was appointed chairman of the Tarakeswar Development Board.


Mayor of Kolkata

On 20 November 2018, Sovan Chatterjee, then mayor of Kolkata, resigned as a cabinet minister. Two days later, he resigned from the post of the mayor of Kolkata. Subsequently, Trinamool Congress announced that Hakim would be their mayoral candidate. The state government passed the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018. This allows a candidate who is not a member of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to be appointed mayor of the city, provided they are elected to the same within a period of six months. On 28 November 2018, Hakim filed his nomination. The following day the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...
announced Mina Debi Purohit (former deputy mayor) as their mayoral candidate. He secured 121 votes while Purohit received five votes; Hakim was elected mayor. He became the first Muslim since the
independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
to be elected mayor of Kolkata. On getting elected, Hakim said that "pollution and environment are two areas" on which he would like to work. He also setup a
WhatsApp WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is an internationally available freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by American company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). It allows user ...
number, promising to act on complaints received on that mobile number. Making Kolkata cleaner and greener, ensuring a continuous supply of drinking water to the city, building toilets in slums and making the slums "model residential areas" were his priorities as mayor. In January 2019, it was announced that Hakim would contest ward no. 82 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. In a by-election, he won the ward and defeated his nearest rival Jiban Sen of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a margin of 13,987 votes; Hakim received 16,564 votes. The term of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation expired on 7 May 2020, however due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
, elections couldn't be held on time to elect the new councillors of the KMC and was delayed. On 8 May 2020, Hakim was appointed as Chairman of Board of Administrators of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. He resigned as Chairman of Board of Administrators of KMC on 22 March 2021 after the
Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, dir ...
(ECI) has restrained political appointees serving as board administrators of West Bengal municipal corporations, ahead of the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election. He was succeeded by IAS Khalil Ahmed.


Controversies

In 2016, the Narada sting operation video was released in which Hakim was seen allegedly taking bribes. On 19 September 2017, he was questioned for eight hours by the
Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governme ...
at Nizam Palace about the sting operation. Hakim said that the CBI probe was a "political conspiracy" against his party and that "he was not seen taking cash in any of the footage". Before the 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, Hakim, while speaking to Maleeha Hamid Sidiqqui of Pakistani newspaper ''
Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ho ...
'', referred to his constituency as "mini-Pakistan". However, he denied making such a statement. He said "she (the Pakistani journalist) only asked me that this place looks like
Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former ...
of Pakistan. I did not make any comment". He also said that he was "being targeted for being a Muslim and that it was a communal conspiracy". At the time of 2021 West Bengal Assembly election, a video goes viral on social media, where Firhad Hakim is seen abusing India's central forces. In this context, the Election Commission made a show cause to Firhad Hakim. Although Firhad Hakim denies it. On 17 May 2021, he along with senior minister Subrata Mukherjee, MLA and former minister
Madan Mitra Madan Mitra (born 3 December 1954) is an Indian politician, and social media sensation. Madan Mitra started his career with party Indian National Congress. He held many positions of Indian Youth Congress, the party's youth wing. In 1998, he j ...
and former Mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee has been arrested by
Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the premier investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and governme ...
from their house in connection with the Narada sting operation.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakim, Bobby 1959 births Living people 21st-century Indian Muslims West Bengal politicians State cabinet ministers of West Bengal Mayors of Kolkata Heramba Chandra College alumni University of Calcutta alumni