Calcutta, May 15: The Trinamul leadership has started approaching senior lawyers as it scouts for a new advocate-general, the shortlist suggesting that proximity to political rivals need not stand in the way of merit.

Mamata Banerjee has requested Shakti Nath Mukherjee, known to be close to outgoing finance minister Asim Dasgupta, to take up the post, party sources said. “Mukherjee is yet to decide,” a source added.

Mamata had asked her party’s legal cell to draw up a panel of names, which it did today. Apart from Mukherjee, there were three names on the shortlist — Sekhar Bose, Jayanta Mitra and Bimal Chatterjee, all of them senior Calcutta High Court lawyers.

Trinamul legal cell sources said Mamata had called up Bose and requested him to accept the post but he politely refused. “He has promised all help on the state’s complicated legal matters,” a cell member said.

Mukherjee was approached next, the sources said.

The advocate-general handles all the court cases involving a government. Balai Ray now holds the post.

Contacted, Trinamul MP and legal cell member Kalyan Banerjee confirmed that Mukherjee’s name was under “active consideration”. “However, a decision is yet to be taken. It will be taken after the swearing-in,” he said.

In the early 1990s, Asim Dasgupta had introduced Mukherjee to Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings. “The state government was planning to appoint him to fight its crucial legal battles instead of Nara Narayan Gooptu, the then advocate-general. But things did not work out,” said a high court lawyer.

Mukherjee is a relative of former BJP MP Sabyasachi Mukherjee. “If Mukherjee agrees to become advocate-general, Ashok Banerjee is likely to become the pleader,” a legal cell member said.

The likely candidate for public prosecutor is Kazi Safiullah, who held the post in the Left government two years ago.

The first challenge for the new advocate-general will be to see if a way can be found to return the contentious 400 acres in Singur.