First TMC leader arrested since BJP won Bengal: Who is Sujit Bose?
The former fire and emergency services minister was a political heavyweight from Bidhannagar, is well known for organising one of Kolkata’s biggest Durga Pujas
TMC leader Sujit Bose The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Sujit Bose in connection with its probe into the alleged municipal recruitment scam, following a 10-and-a-half-hour interrogation. Bose, the former fire and emergency services minister, had been summoned to the CGO Complex here by the central agency. Officials said Bose was arrested on the grounds of non-cooperation and discrepancies in his statement.
This time, Bose, most well-known as the patron of one of Kolkata’s most popular Durga Pujas, lost the election from Bidhannagar, which he had won for the first time in 2009 and retained since then. While Bose had built up a strong support base in the area over the years, voters’ unhappiness with the TMC in general and with him, in general — over roads in disrepair, uncollected garbage, and waterlogging, as The Indian Express’s visit to the constituency during the election campaign showed — led to his defeat by 37,330 votes. “In the past 10 years, there has been a drastic deterioration. Streets are filled with potholes. In the slightest rain, waters enter our homes, even as garbage is dumped everywhere,” a local said.
A planned city on the outskirts of Kolkata, Bidhannagar falls under the North 24 Parganas district and was named after former CM Bidhan Chandra Roy. The constituency was created following the 2008 delimitation exercise in the state. Known earlier as the Belgachia East constituency, the Bidhannagar area was once a stronghold of the CPI(M) and was represented by state transport minister Subhash Chakraborty from 1977 till his death in 2009. After Chakraborty’s death, the TMC made inroads in Bidhannagar with the help of Bose, once Chakraborty’s protege.
Bose started as a leader of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the CPI(M)’s youth wing. He rose to become a close aide of Chakraborty. However,
by the late 1990s, they started drifting apart. In 2001, Bose joined the TMC and five years later contested his first Assembly election against Chakraborty from Belgachia East. However, his one-time mentor managed to pip him to the post by 1,749 votes.
Chakraborty passed away in 2009 and Bose contested the subsequent bypoll against the CPI(M) veteran’s wife Ramala, defeating her by 28,360 votes to enter the Assembly for the first time. He won the subsequent Assembly elections and, after the victory in 2021, was appointed minister for the first time. Bose was not just a heavyweight in Kolkata and, according to TMC insiders, was also involved in building the party’s base in north Bengal, which was subsequently eclipsed by the BJP’s rise in the region.
Bose is particularly known for organising one of Kolkata’s biggest Durga Pujas at Sreebhumi Sporting Club in the Lake Town area. One of the biggest draws during the Puja, vehicular movement on the arterial VIP Road in the city came to a halt a few years ago because of the massive footfall at the club. Once, then CM Mamata Banerjee chided Bose and threatened to “block” him if the traffic along VIP Road got affected because of the Puja. “Sab cheye dushtumi korey Sujit (Sujit is the most mischievous one). He does it (Durga Puja) in such a manner that people can’t come from the airport. This time, I will tell the police to ensure that the (traffic around the) airport is not disturbed. Sujit, you will have to see to it while organising the Puja,” she said.
Bose is the first TMC leader to be arrested following the party’s loss in the West Bengal Assembly elections and is unlikely to be the last as CM Suvendu Adhikari has promised to conduct inquiries into allegations of corruption during the rule of the TMC government. Adhikari promised an inquiry by a commission headed by a retired judge that will investigate all corruption cases.
Bose had received the ED’s summons in the case — linked to alleged illegal appointments across multiple municipal bodies since 2014 — in the middle of the campaigning and appeared before the agency on May 1. Before that, he was summoned four times by the ED in the alleged cash-for-municipal-job scam, with the first summons coming on April 2.
On October 10, 2025, multiple teams of the ED had searched Bose’s office in the Salt Lake neighbourhood, a restaurant that is said to be owned by his son, the residence of Nitai Dutta — vice-chairman of South Dum Dum Municipality and a close aide of Bose — and the houses of a chartered accountant and an auditor.
What is the alleged scam?
The ED’s investigation flows from findings in 2023, which suggested that an accused in an alleged recruitment scam in government-aided schools allegedly played a role in recruiting approximately 5,000 candidates to permanent posts in about 60 municipalities across the state. Under the scanner are several civic bodies in and around Kolkata, including South Dum Dum, Kamarhati, Panihati, North Dum Dum, and Baranagar municipalities, as well as a few in North Bengal.
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