Will former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee return to TMC? A meeting sparks speculation

Five years after he left the Trinamool Congress (TMC), there is talk in West Bengal’s political circles about former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee rejoining the ruling party. The speculation was triggered after senior TMC leaders Aroop Biswas and Kunal Ghosh visited Chatterjee at his home in Kolkata’s Golpark area last week, party sources said. Neither Biswas nor Ghosh said anything about the meeting, with Ghosh saying “it was not a political visit”.

However, a senior TMC leader said, “The TMC’s Martyrs’ Day is on July 21. It’s the party’s biggest annual programme. We are expecting Sovan to make a return to the TMC on that occasion. Of late, Mamata Banerjee has not been happy with the working of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) or with the party’s organisation in Behala (a Kolkata suburb) from where Sovan has been twice elected MLA. Since then, we have been hearing that the CM now wants her once-trusted lieutenant to return and take responsibility for the party’s organisation in Behala.”

Asked about the CM’s reported unhappiness with the functioning of the KMC, current Mayor Firhad Hakim said, “I don’t know anything, nor am I interested.”

Chatterjee did not deny the possibility of his return to the TMC, saying, “I am very much in touch with the TMC. I also have contact with Mamata Banerjee. Whenever I have a query or need, I call Didi (Mamata Banerjee). All I can say is that whether as Mayor, Minister, or in any other post, all decisions were taken by Mamata Banerjee. She decided when to pitch me in which position. This time too, all I can say is that Mamata Banerjee will take the call.”

Once a high-profile TMC leader and close aide of the TMC chairperson — one of the many West Bengal Congress leaders who had tagged