Subrata Mukherjee (14 June 1946 – 4 November 2021) was an Indian politician who was cabinet minister of the

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 ...

and sitting member of

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 ...

. He was a member of

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 was also the 35th Mayor of Kolkata from 2000 to 2005.

Political career

Career with Indian National Congress

Mukherjee started his political career as a student activist during his higher education in Kolkata. He joined the Chhatra Parishad, a student organisation affiliated to the

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 ...

, in the 1960s. During this period he made the acquaintance of

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 ...

. Mukherjee was considered one of the two close aides of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, along with

. CPIM leaders used a slogan "''Indirar dui putra Priyo Ranjan o Subrata''" (). In 1971 and 1972, Mukherjee was elected to the legislative assembly from the Ballygunge Assembly constituency. In 1972, he was appointed Minister of State in the Siddhartha Shankar Ray ministry as Minister of Information and Cultural Affairs. He also held an additional responsibility as Minister of State for local government. He lost the Ballygunge Assembly constituency when the Congress party was defeated by the Left Front amid huge anti-incumbency voting patterns. In 1982, he shifted to the Jorabagan Assembly constituency and represented it till 1996. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Chowranghee in 1996 and 2001.

Career with All India Trinamool Congress

In 1999, he joined with

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 20 May 2011, the first woman to hold the office. Having served many times as a Un ...

, parting ways with the

. This decision came from the Congress MLA, as

INTUC Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) is a national trade union in India. It was founded on 3 May 1947 and is affiliated with the International Trade Union Confederation. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, ...

denied him the nomination to the governing body of the

ILO The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and ol ...

for the second term. He was made the

Mayor of Kolkata The Mayor of Kolkata is the chief executive of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, one of the civic authorities in the Indian city of Kolkata. He is the ''First Citizen'' of the city of Kolkata. There have been 38 mayors of Kolkata in total ti ...

in 2000, as a

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 ...

candidate. However, even after being the Mayor as a Trinamool leader, he decided not to resign as a Congress member of the Legislative Assembly. As Mayor, he had planned a 300 ft-high Kolkata gate on EM Bypass, which would have cost Rs. 20-crore. However, the project could not go ahead, as it could not obtain clearance from the Pollution Control Board. Mukherjee was also elected to the Assembly on a

ticket in 2001 from Chowrighee. He also contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 from Calcutta North West constituency, but lost.

Polls of Kolkata Municipal Corporation

Ahead of the civic polls in 2005, Mukherjee quit Trinamool Congress following differences with the party chief, and joined the

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

. He was able to cobble up an alliance with Congress and several marginal players under the platform of Paschimbanga Unnayan Mancha. Although he was able to get elected to the corporation, his front suffered a humiliating defeat. Even after leaving Trinamool Congress, he did not resign as a Trinamool member in the legislative assembly until the end of its term in 2006.

Later career

In the 2006 state elections, he came third in the Chowranghee seat as a Congress candidate. In 2006, the Congress had also fielded Mukherjee for the biennial election for a

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, wikisource:Constitution of India/Part V#Article 80, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legisl ...

seat, but he failed to win. In 2009, he fought from Bankura Lok Sabha constituency on the Congress ticket and lost. In May 2010, Mukherjee left the Indian National Congress again and rejoined Trinamool Congress, leaving the post of Pradesh Congress Working President. He contested the 2011 Assembly elections from the Ballygunge seat.

Cabinet Minister

In 2011, after the Trinamool Congress won a majority in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, he was made Minister for Public Health Engineering under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In December 2011, he was given the additional charge of Panchayati Raj & Rural Development ministry, and replaced Chandranath Sinha. In February 2012, he was made the All India President of the INTTUC, instead of Sobhandeb Chatterjee. In the 2019 Loksabha elections, he fought from Bankura and lost to Subhas Sarkar of the BJP. He won with huge margin in 2021 vidhan sabha election from

Ballygunge Ballygunge is a locality of South Kolkata, in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. History The East India Company obtained from the Mughal emperor Farrukhsiyar, in 1717, the right to rent from 38 villages surrounding their settlement. Of th ...

Controversies

On 17 May 2021, Mukherjee, along with senior minister in the

cabinet Firad Hakim, 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 were 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 ...

in connection with 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 ...

Death

He was hospitalised in SSKM Hospital, Kolkata on 24 October 2021 with serious heart problems and died of a heart attack on 4 November 2021 at the age of 75. He was cremated with full state honors at Keoratola crematorium the following day.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Subrata 1946 births 2021 deaths State cabinet ministers of West Bengal West Bengal MLAs 1996–2001 West Bengal MLAs 2001–2006 West Bengal MLAs 2011–2016 West Bengal MLAs 2016–2021 Trinamool Congress politicians from West Bengal Politicians from Kolkata Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal Bangabasi College alumni West Bengal MLAs 2021–2026 University of Calcutta alumni Mayors of Kolkata Nationalist Congress Party politicians West Bengal MLAs 1971–1972 West Bengal MLAs 1982–1987 West Bengal MLAs 1987–1991 West Bengal MLAs 1991–1996