A day after his release from prison, where he had spent over three years, the former state education minister Partha Chatterjee said he has to find the Brutus who betrayed him.
Chatting with ABP Ananda at his Naktala residence, Partha Chatterjee said: “There is nothing to hide. What can anybody do to me? Someone can have two wives. I don’t have a wife, can’t I have a girlfriend? In prison I thought about the Brutus.”
Since his name got dragged into the school recruitment scam, he has lost his post in the party, his position in the cabinet. His personal life spilled out in the open. His son-in-law, arrested in the same case, turned approver.
On 23 July 2022, the Enforcement Directorate branch had raided Chatterjee’s Naktala residence. His close associate Arpita Mukherjee’s Tollygunge flat was also raided and Rs 21.9 crore seized. From another flat owned by Mukherjee the ED officials had recovered Rs 27.9 crore in cash and jewellery worth Rs 4.3 crore.
“Cash was not found at my home. It was found at her residence, she can reply. Arpita is my girl-friend. What’s the problem? Aren’t you showing Sovan-Baisakhi?” asked Partha. “If the party searches more people will emerge (with multiple relationships). Didimoni (Mamata) knows everything. She knows what is happening in the personal lives of film and television artistes. Is she unaware (about her party leaders personal lives? She knows everything.”
On several occasions, Trinamool’s general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had talked about the expulsion of Partha Chatterjee from the party to illustrate the party’s no-nonsense attitude towards corruption.
“I don’t know if I was suspended. The media says so. The ED officers said so. I have not received any letter,” Partha said.
Partha insisted his ties with the Trinamool remained unchanged despite his incarceration and subsequent actions against him.
A statement issued by him for his constituents has been circulating widely. The former state minister said he would soon visit his constituency to meet and speak with voters.
The Assembly elections are due for next year. Whether the Trinamool leadership will do a rethink on him is unknown. Several other Trinamool leaders like former minister Jyotipriya Mullick and the Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal who were also incarcerated have remained with the party.
A known Mamata-loyalist, Partha is upset that no one from the Trinamool, including the top two leaders, Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee made any contacts with him while he was behind bars.
“My loyalty is responsible for my downfall,” he said.
Despite the graft charges against him, the trial of multiple cases still pending, Partha refuses to believe corruption can be a major political issue. Successive election results in Bengal the Saradha scam onwards which pointed to the involvement of the ruling party’s leaders support his claim.
“Jayalalithaa, Stalin even the BJP could not have returned (to power) if corruption had been an issue. The key is development,” he said before rolling out a list of actions that he took as the minister of the state education department like setting up universities and colleges. “The school service commission is an autonomous body. The minister has no role there. There is a separate board with a chairperson. I won’t go into the legalities.”
The only political identity still with Chatterjee is that he is the elected representative from the Behala West Assembly constituency.
His nearest rival in the party, Sovan Chatterjee, embroiled in corruption charges and whose personal life had cast a long shadow on his political career, was reinstated into the party just weeks ago.
The other Chatterjee, Partha, just out from prison after more than three years is still unsure of a political rehabilitation in the party where he was considered the number two for long or a chart a separate course as independent or with another party.
“If there is a bridge I know how to cross it,” he said.