More than just Mukul Roys son

Subhrangshu,whose father is the Trinamool Congress general secretary and a Union minister,is contesting from Bijpur in North 24-Parganas,which votes in West Bengals third phase. At 27,he is the partys youngest candidate.

An engineer with an MBA degree,he has a number of interests. He has played cricket for his district. He has developed software for a multi-lingual,multi-purpose SMS campaign. Keen on social work,he has set up in his home a Jugalnath Memorial Society,a computer centre-cum-kindergarten and primary school for underprivileged children.

He was wondering what sort of career he could make for himself when Mamata Banerjee encouraged him to join politics. In 2009,when I said I needed to time to build my career,she scolded me. If youngsters like you only think about building your careers,who will be left for politics? she told me, Subhrangshu said.

Mamata stood by him during the events leading to his arrest. Our leaders and workers are being harassed. It is a conspiracy by the CPM, she said at a public meeting in Gayshpur on Sunday. He was arrested after Mamata left. On Monday,he was remanded in jail custody for a day.

Subhrangshu and 10 others are charged with assaulting members of an Election Commission team in his constituency on April 12. The officials were erasing wall writings on public and private buildings when they were assaulted. Absconding for five days,he was arrested after he attended Mamatas meeting.

Subhrangshu has grown up watching and learning from Mamata. He got his engineering degree from Kalyani University,did his MBA at West Bengal University of Technology and worked in a series of brief jobs before following Mamatas advice and plunging into politics.

He was involved in a students movement in college too,yet joining Trinamool was not an obvious decision even for Mukul Roy8217;s son. I have seen how the area has been neglected over the years. The roads are pathetic,the mills are closed and there is no scope to voice ones opinion, he had told The Indian Express.

He contested his first election in May 2010 and became the councillor of Ward 6 of Kanchrapara Municipality.

Bijpur,in the industrial belt of the district,has been a Left stronghold with a number of jute and paper mills dotting the constituency. The area has a large Muslim population and is educationally backward. There is no government school and Subhrangshi has promised to set up an Urdu medium school and a madrasa over here.

Until the alleged assault,a typical day for Subhranggshu began at 7 am with door-to-door campaigns till midnight. He would meet Muslim residents,mill workers,labourers and senior leaders.