Ready to Contest Against Mamata Banerjee, Says Sovan Chatterjee After Joining BJP

Former Trinamool Congress leader Sovan Chatterjee, who recently joined the BJP, said in Kolkata on Tuesday that he was willing to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when the state votes in 2021 if his new party wanted him to. Addressing the media for the first time at the BJP’s state office, he said he had been a loyal soldier of the TMC and would now be one for the BJP.

Jibes at the TMC

Once a trusted aide of Banerjee, Chatterjee mocked the TMC for hiring poll strategist Prashant Kishor to revive its fortunes. He said that as mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation he used to appoint contractors, and that the TMC was now doing the same, but that “the contractor will not be able to save the sinking ship”.

He rejected suggestions that he had switched sides to avoid CBI questioning in the Narada tape case, in which he had been summoned by both the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI. He said the matter was subjudice and that being accused was very different from being proven guilty. He also said he had objected within the TMC to the way the 2018 panchayat polls were held, citing allegations of violence and malpractice.

TMC’s reply

TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said Sovan Chatterjee had forgotten Banerjee’s role in building his career, that he had never raised the panchayat polls in party forums, and that he was now offering “lame excuses”.

Background

Banerjee represents Bhawanipur and Chatterjee the Behala Purba seat. Like Banerjee, he started in the Youth Congress. A four-time MLA, he served as a minister and twice as Kolkata mayor, and was given three key departments after the TMC’s 2016 win. He was asked to resign as minister and mayor in November 2018 over problems in his personal life. He and his close aide Baisakhi Banerjee, who had joined the BJP with him on August 14 in New Delhi, were felicitated by state BJP president Dilip Ghosh. The BJP, which won 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, has set its sights on the 2021 polls.

What happened next

In the 2021 West Bengal assembly election, the Trinamool Congress won 215 seats and the BJP 77, and Mamata Banerjee remained Chief Minister.

See also: Bharatiya Janata Party and elections.

Originally published on 21 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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