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KOLKATA: Former West Bengal minister Sovan Chatterjee was appointed chairperson of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) on Friday, amid indications that the former Kolkata mayor was headed back to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Sovan Chatterjee had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in August 2019, months after he was told to step down as cabinet minister and Kolkata mayor in November 2018. But he exited the BJP in March 2021 after being denied a ticket from the Behala Purba assembly seat in the state elections.
Chatterjee’s appointment as NKDA chairperson on Friday comes 48 hours after he flew to north Bengal to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee while she was touring areas affected by the October 5 landslides and floods.
Chatterjee will replace retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Alapan Bandopadhyay, the chief advisor to Mamata Banerjee. NKDA provides civic services at New Town, located on the eastern outskirts of Kolkata.
“Didi (Banerjee) did not tell me anything about this appointment when I met her. I will carry out the responsibility to the best of my ability,” Chatterjee told reporters.
TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar said Chatterjee had “vast experience in civic body administration. The government wants to use that”.
Chatterjee, who once figured among Banerjee’s most trusted aides, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2021 in connection with the Narada case weeks after his exit from the BJP.
In November 2018, Chatterjee resigned from his ministerial positions – he headed two departments – and also quit the post of Kolkata mayor after he was pulled up by Banerjee for devoting too much time to personal affairs. In November 2017, he filed for divorce from his wife Ratna Chatterjee and moved out of his residence. The divorce suit was recently dismissed by the Calcutta high court.
In 2021, Ratna Chatterjee won the Behala Purba assembly seat, which he won in 2011 and 2016.
