Partha relieved of posts as raids by ED continue

West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee was stripped of his portfolios and his positions in the Trinamool Congress by chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday , six days after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the cash-for-jobs scandal, in which the agency has thus far recovered cash worth ₹50 crore.

The TMC suspended Chatterjee, also an office bearer in its state unit, adding that he could be reinstated if proven innocent.

Chatterjee’s sacking from the posts came amidst a rising demand, even from within the party, for his removal, and on the evening of a day when ED said it seized ₹27.9 crore in cash and gold worth ₹4.31 crore from a flat that belongs to Arpita Mukherjee, a model and close aide of the former minister.

The agency has thus far recovered ₹50 crore of cash and gold jewellery worth ₹5 crore from two flats belonging to Mukherjee and told a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court that the total amount involved could be around ₹120 crore. On Thursday, ED carried out a fresh raid in another flat believed to Mukherjee’s in a posh housing campus at Chinar Park in North 24 Parganas.

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Chatterjee was arrested on July 23 by ED in connection with alleged corruption in recruiting teachers during the last term of the TMC government, when he was an education minister. The Calcutta high court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry in May this year and said it would be preferable that Chatterjee step down or be removed by the chief minister or the Governor. ED is following the money trail.

Until Thursday, Chatterjee sought to brazen it out, and Banerjee seemed loath to remove him from her cabinet, saying, at least on two occasions that she would act if the court finds him guilty.

On Thursday, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party took out a protest rally from College Square to Rani Rashmoni road in central Kolkata against alleged irregularities in the appointment of teachers and non-teaching staff in the government sponsored and aided schools.

Political pressure on Banerjee has been increasing from opposition and from within TMC to remove Chatterjee. In Delhi, union minister Meenakshi Lekhi described the present TMC government in the state as the most corrupt and sought chief minister Banerjee’s resignation saying Chatterjee was just a small pawn in the TMC’s corruption network. Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury wrote to Banerjee on Monday, seeking Chatterjee’s sacking, and leader of the opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, met the Governor on Wednesday demanding Chatterjee’s removal. On Thursday morning, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh tweeted, tagging party twitter handle, that Chatterjee be sacked from the cabinet and all party-posts immediately.

Political analysts said the seizure of so much money is unprecedented in West Bengal’s history and has dented the image of the TMC. The party’s stand has been that Mukherjee is not a party member, and that the fact that she has been photographed with Banerjee is “incidental.”

Chatterjee was the state minister for commerce and industry, IT and electronics, parliamentary affairs and public enterprises and industrial reconstruction. The state’s chief secretary issued a notification saying that he has been relieved of his duty as a minister of the departments. “I have relieved Partha Chatterjee from the portfolios he was holding. I am taking over the departments till the time a new council of ministers is formed. Our party is very strict and we face a lot of difficulties while doing politics,” said Mamata Banerjee, chief minister, after an order was issued on Thursday afternoon in this regard.

Later in the day, the TMC’s disciplinary committee held a meeting chaired by the party’s national general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

“The disciplinary committee unanimously decided that Chatterjee would be sacked from all five party posts. He has been suspended till the time the investigation continues. The doors of the judiciary are open for him. If he hasn’t done anything then he has to prove it and then return to the party with all honour. We have full faith in the judiciary,” said Abhishek Banerjee.

Chatterjee was party’s national vice president, a member of the TMC’s national working committee, state secretary general, member of the disciplinary committee and editor of the party’s mouth piece.

“Some circumstantial evidence has emerged in public domain over the past few days. We are giving the benefit of doubt to the people and not to our leader. If any TMC man is found involved exemplary punishment should be given. There will be zero tolerance towards corruption. But the investigation should be time-bound so that victims get justice. The state will give full cooperation, as the chief minister has said,” added Abhishek Banerjee.

Analysts said that the new ED raid sealed Chatterjee’s fate.

“The party was under tremendous pressure and had to suspend Chatterjee. The chief minister too had to sack him under pressure. It is being projected that he was suspended and sacked on moral grounds. It won’t be right to say that. Had Mamata sacked him or removed him from party posts the day the Calcutta high court had wished that he be removed, it would have been right to say that,” said Biswanath Chakraborty, a professor and political commentator.