Madan Mitra (born 3 December 1954) is an Indian politician, and social media sensation. Madan Mitra started his career with party

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 E ...

. He held many positions of

Indian Youth Congress The Indian Youth Congress is the youth wing of the Indian National Congress party. The Indian Youth Congress was a department of the Indian National Congress from the period just after the Partition of India in 1947 until the late 1960s. While ...

, the party's youth wing. In 1998, he joined All India Trinamool Congress party, founded by his colleague

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

. In 2011, he was elected to the legislative assembly and became a state minister. He was arrested for the Sarada chit fund conspiracy case and got bail after 22 months.

Early life

Mitra hails from an aristocratic family of

Bhowanipore Bhowanipore (also Bhowanipur; bn, ভবানীপুর) is a neighbourhood of South Kolkata in Kolkata district of West Bengal, India. History In 1717, the East India Company obtained the right to rent from 38 villages surrounding their ...

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, comme ...

. In 1971, he passed out from South Suburban School. He received an under-graduate degree in history from

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

in 1976.

Political career

Early years

In 1973, Mitra entered politics and became the president of the students' union of Ashutosh College. He later became the south Kolkata president of the

. Initially, he belonged to the

Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi (''Prio Rônjon Dashmunshi''; 13 November 1945 – 20 November 2017) was an Indian National Congress politician, former Union Minister and a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Raiganj (Lok Sabha con ...

faction. However, in 1976 he first switched to the Somen Mitra faction and then to the

faction. In 1990, he was appointed general secretary of the West Bengal unit of the Indian Youth Congress. He launched a

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choic ...

drivers' union the 1990s and also wrested control of the union of the

SSKM Hospital IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, or in its full name Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital, colloquially known as P.G. Hospital (Presidency General Hospital), also known as PGI Kolkata, is ...

. Mamata Banerjee founded the

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 cur ...

in 1998. In 2000, he was appointed general secretary of the party. Four years later, he became the president of the Trinamool Youth Congress.

Electoral politics

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 10 ...

, Mitra was elected to the Legislative Assembly from the Kamarhati constituency. He became the sports minister and transport minister in the First Mamata Banerjee ministry. On 18 November 2015, he resigned from the cabinet after being named as an accused in the

Saradha Group financial scandal The Saradha Group financial scandal was a major financial scam and alleged political scandal caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies that was believed to be running collective i ...

. Mitra lost the 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election from his constituency. He was defeated by Manash Mukherjee of

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...

by a margin of 4,198 votes. Following the defeat, he was relegated to the fringes of the party. On 26 April 2019, Mamata Banerjee announced that Mitra would contest the upcoming by-election for Bhatpara constituency which had become vacant due to the defection of Arjun Singh to the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

, but he was defeated by Pawan Kumar Singh.

Personal life

Madan Mitra is married to Mrs. Archana Mitra. They have two sons, Swarup Mitra and Subhorup Mitra. While Swarup is a businessman, Subhorup is a youth politician. Swarup's son Maharup was born in 2015.

Controversies

In 2012, Mitra questioned the morals of Suzette Jordan, the Park Street rape victim for befriending strangers at 2 am. On 13 December 2014, Mitra was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation for his alleged role in

claimed that the arrest was an example of political vendetta of the

. While in jail, he was admitted to a hospital in November 2015 after he complained of "uneasiness". In September 2016, he was granted bail and hasn't been admitted to the hospital since. Mitra was interrogated by the

Enforcement Directorate The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Gover ...

in September 2017 following the

Narada sting operation The Narada sting operation was a sting operation carried out by Mathew Samuel targeting high-ranking officials and politicians of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). It showed several politicians and a high-ranked police officer accepting ...

. On 17 May 2021, he along with senior minister in the

cabinet, Subrata Mukherjee, MLA and minister

Firhad Hakim 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. He is a MLA of ...

and former Mayor of Kolkata

Sovan Chatterjee Sovan Chatterjee (born 7 July 1964) is an Indian politician. He is a former member of Bharatiya Janata Party, and former Mayor of the city of Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Chatterjee served as a Kolkata Municipal Corpo ...

has been arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation from their house in connection with the

..He was granted bail on 28 May 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitra, Madan State cabinet ministers of West Bengal Living people West Bengal MLAs 2011–2016 Trinamool Congress politicians from West Bengal People from Kamarhati Indian prisoners and detainees Corruption in West Bengal 1954 births