Newsmakers of the Week | Bengal minister and Mamata aide, Oppn’s V-P pick, UP MoS

West Bengal commerce and industry minister and senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Saturday for his alleged involvement in the teacher recruitment scam in the state School Service Commission (SSC). Chatterjee has been one of the most trusted lieutenants of Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee. Apart from being a heavyweight minister handling various key portfolios, Chatterjee is also the TMC secretary general — the most important party role after the position of party chief Mamata Banerjee and her nephew and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. From the constitution of the TMC district committees to working out election strategies, Chatterjee plays an important role in the entire spectrum of organisational matters. Read Santanu Chowdhury’s report on Mamata’s “go to” leader.

Opposition’s Vice-Presidential candidate Margaret Alva

At the start of the year, veteran Congress politician Margaret Alva wrote a letter to PM Narendra Modi, expressing her angst over a move by the BJP government in Karnataka to bring in a law on religious conversions. Her letter to the PM and participation in protests against The Karnataka Protection of Right of Freedom of Religion Bill in the latter half of 2021 saw Alva, once a political force to be reckoned with in Karnataka, returning to the political stage in the state after a long hiatus. Now the Opposition’s ‘consensus’ candidate for the vice-president’s post, Alva finds herself in the spotlight once again. She is among the Newsmakers of the Week.

West Bengal’s new governor La Ganesan

The BJP’s temporary replacement for Jagdeep Dhankhar in the West Bengal Raj Bhavan is La Ganesan, one of the most prominent RSS veterans of southern India and a former BJP Tamil Nadu president. Currently the Manipur Governor, Ganesan has been given additional charge of West Bengal. Having moved from the RSS to the BJP in the early 1990s, when he was sent to work for the party as general secretary in-charge of the organisation and held the post till 2003, Ganesan saw the party through some of its toughest times. Under him, the BJP tied up with J Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, only to have it withdraw support to the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, causing it to fall by one vote. Later, along with Cho Ramaswamy, Ganesan was credited with getting the DMK to the BJP side. He was also believed to have helped the BJP develop links with the Tamil diaspora in Sri Lanka, Europe and Asia. Arun Janardhanan brings to you this report on the RSS veteran.

UP minister Jitin Prasada

More than a year after he jumped ship to the BJP to become a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh, Jitin Prasada has come under cloud in the wake of removal of his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Anil Kumar Pandey and suspension by Chief Minister Adityanath of five senior officials of his Public Works Department (PWD) over their alleged involvement in transfers in lieu of money. Like his stint with the Indian National Congress, his previous party, Prasada has had a remarkable rise in the BJP’s Uttar Pradesh dispensation that was perceived to have thin representation of the Brahmin community. But the Adityanath government’s crackdown on his OSD Pandey and PWD officials over graft charges has dealt a blow to him.

Uttar Pradesh minister Dinesh Khatik

Uttar Pradesh minister of state (MoS) for Jal Shakti, Dinesh Khatik, made headlines early this week by offering his resignation through a letter addressed to Union home minister Amit Shah instead of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In the letter, which went viral, Khatik alleged corruption in his ministry and that he was being ignored by officials because of his Dalit identity. The 45-year-old two-term MLA from Meerut’s Hastinapur Assembly constituency, Khatik is one of the BJP’s prominent Dalit leaders in western UP. He was one of the eight Dalit faces Adityanath inducted into his ministry after taking charge as the CM in March for the second consecutive term. Read Maulshree Seth’s report on the Dalit leader who rose from RSS, BJP ranks and eyed a ‘larger role’.

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