Who is Jitendra Kumar Tiwari, the Bengal BJP leader accused of ‘meeting’ NIA officer

Jitendra Kumar Tiwari, a prominent leader from the largely Hindi-speaking region of Asansol in West Bengal, is back in the headlines. The BJP leader’s former party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), has accused him of meeting a National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer, SP Dhan Ram Singh, at his New Town residence in Kolkata on March 26, after the Lok Sabha election dates were announced, in order to “hatch a conspiracy against TMC leaders in exchange for money”.

At a press conference in Kolkata on April 7, TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh and Minister of State for Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya alleged that Tiwari met the NIA SP carrying a “white packet” which, according to them, contained cash, to ensure the arrest of TMC workers of Bhupatinagar in Purba Medinipur district, who are alleged to have roughed up an NIA team on April 6. On Wednesday, The Indian Express reported that the SP had been summoned to the NIA headquarters in Delhi, though both Tiwari and the BJP denied the TMC’s claims.

Belonging to Asansol, the 45-year-old who is trained as a lawyer began his political career in 2006, contesting his first Assembly election from Raniganj on a TMC ticket. With the TMC still struggling against the Left in Bengal at the time, Tiwari had lost. In 2011, the TMC stormed to power, and as its control over Bengal strengthened, Tiwari was among the beneficiaries. In October 2015, he was elected as the mayor of the newly created Asansol Municipal Corporation (AMC), remaining in the post till 2020, after which, he took over as the AMC administrator.

Between 2016 and 2021, he was also the TMC MLA from Pandabeswar in Asansol, apart from being the Paschim Bardhaman district president of the TMC. What quickly distinguished him in the