CM accepts Sovan's resignation from both mayoral and ministerial posts

Kolkata: Sovan Chatterjee, state minister for Fire and Emergency Services and Housing tendered his resignation on Tuesday evening. He will submit his resignation from the post of Mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Wednesday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accepted his resignation letter and sent it to Governor K N Tripathi.

Before leaving Nabanna, the state administrative headquarters, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that Chatterjee had sent his resignation earlier also but she had not accepted any of them. She added that Firhad Hakim, the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister, will look after Fire and Emergency Services and Housing — the departments Chatterjee used to take care of. Municipal Commissioner Khalil Ahmed will look after the administrative work in the KMC until a new Mayor is sworn in.

There was a marked deterioration in the relationship of Mamata Banerjee with Sovan Chatterjee for the past one year after the latter could not concentrate on official business. During this period, Banerjee had urged him several times to concentrate on his official assignments which, however, fell flat.

The matter came to head on Tuesday morning when Chatterjee, who is the state Housing minister, faltered while replying to a question in the Assembly over the number of houses constructed under Gitanjali project. He said that the department has received recommendations for construction of 25 lakh houses under the said housing project between 2011-12 and September 2018. The Chief Minister who was present on the floor of the House stood up and informed the MLAs that 25 lakh houses have been constructed under Gitanjali and other schemes while the number of sanctioned houses under these schemes was 40 lakhs.

Mamata Banerjee had the best of relations with Sovan Chatterjee and she used to call him by his pet name "Kanan". Before the Trinamool Congress came to power, he had accompanied Banerjee in all important party meetings and was considered to be the "most obedient boy."

After Banerjee became the Chief Minister for the second time in 2016, Chatterjee was asked to look after three departments. He was also the president of the Trinamool Congress' South 24-Parganas unit.

But in the past one year, Chatterjee started bunking office and despite Banerjee's repeated requests asking him to concentrate on his work, there was no change. Finally, Banerjee made Suvendu Adhikari the minister for Environment department replacing Sovan. Subhasis Chakraborty, the party's Rajya Sabha MP, was made the president of the party's South 24-Parganas unit.

Chatterjee became the Councillor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 1985 when the new civic board with Member, Mayor-in-Council system was introduced. He was the youngest Councillor and a firebrand leader from Behala. From 1985 till 2000 he took the leading role in the KMC to highlight the failure of the Left Front board to look after the city properly. He became a Mayor in council member in 2000 and looked after the Water Supply department. He became Mayor in 2010 and 2015. He was elected from Behala East Assembly seat in 2011 and 2016 respectively.