‘Didi like family’: Former Kolkata Mayor back in TMC with Baishakhi after 7 years

Speaking to mediapersons at the TMC office, 61-year-old Shovan Chatterjee said: “Didi (TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee) is like family. My arteries and veins are filled with Trinamool’s blood. This is my home, my family. I will work under Didi’s leadership again to strengthen the party.”

Soon after formally joining the party, the two – Shovan and Baishakhi – headed to meet TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who, Shovan said, “encouraged” him.

Aroop Biswas said the two leaders had expressed their wish to meet Abhishek Banerjee immediately after rejoining the party, and the TMC MP had “gladly agreed.”

“They have formally conveyed to the party that they wish to contribute again to Mamata Banerjee’s mission for Bengal’s development,” Biswas said.

Speaking to mediapersons after meeting them, Abhishek said, “Everyone has the right to choose which political party they will join. He was not in active politics for many years. With the permission of Mamata Banerjee, the two have been returned to our party.”

According to TMC sources, the four-time MLA, Shovan, once had cold relations with Abhishek. “So this time, he wanted to rectify it and immediately met the Number 2 leader in TMC,” a party leader said on the condition of anonymity.

The comeback has created a buzz in his former stronghold of Behala, where posters featuring his photograph appeared soon after his administrative reappointment last month.

Party insiders said Chatterjee’s move has revived speculations that he might be fielded from Behala, a seat now represented by former minister Partha Chatterjee, who is in jail in connection with the teacher’s recruitment scam case.

The speculation of Shovan’s return to TMC began afresh this year during the Durga Puja, when Abhishek had a closed-door meeting with him. The meeting, which lasted for nearly 50 minutes, was also attended by Baishakhi Banerjee. She had then said that Sovan’s return to active politics was only a matter of time.

Last month, Shovan and Baishakhi met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Darjeeling’s Richmond Hill, which was followed by his appointment as chairperson of New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) – in what is seen as the “first step” towards his return to the party.

Once a high-profile TMC leader and a close aide of the TMC supremo — one of the many West Bengal Congress leaders who had tagged along with Mamata Banerjee when she launched the TMC in 1998 — Chatterjee used to be affectionately called by the TMC supremo by his nickname “Kanon”. As differences with the CM crept in, he stepped down from the Cabinet and KMC in 2018 and joined the BJP in August 2019.

While Sovan wasn’t very active on the ground in his early days as a BJP leader, he became more visible after being appointed observer of the BJP’s Kolkata Zone in January 2021.

He was expecting to be fielded from Behala Purba, which he had won in 2011 and 2016 as a TMC MLA in the 2021 Assembly polls. After being denied ticket to contest, he and his associate Baishakhi Banerjee, another TMC defector, walked out of the BJP.

Last year, ahead of the martyrs’ rally, there was talk of Sovan Chatterjee’s return to the TMC. The speculation was triggered after senior TMC leaders Aroop Biswas and Kunal Ghosh visited his home in Kolkata’s Golpark area.