Subrata Mukherjee was an Indian politician born on 14 June 1946 and died on 4 November 2021). He was a cabinet minister of the government of West Bengal and sitting member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly. He was a member of All India Trinamool Congress. He was also the 35th Mayor of Kolkata from 2000 to 2005.
Who is Subrata Mukherjee’s Son?
Sanjeev Mukherjee is the son of Subrata Mukherjee. He was a member of All India Trinamool Congress. He was also the 36th Mayor of Kolkata from 2000 to 2005. Mukherjee started his political career as a student activist during his higher education in Kolkata.
Political career of Subrata Mukherjee
Mukherjee started his political career as a student activist during his higher education in Kolkata. He joined the Chhatra Parishad, a student organisation affiliated to the Indian National Congress, in the 1960s. During this period, he made the acquaintance of Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.
Mukherjee was considered one of the two close aides of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, along with Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi. CPIM leaders used a slogan “Indirar dui putra Priyo Ranjan o Subrata” (transl. Indira’s two sons Priya Ranjan and Subrata).
In 1971 and 1972, Mukherjee was elected to the legislative assembly from the Ballygunge Assembly constituency. In 1972, he was appointed Minister of State in the Siddhartha Shankar Ray ministry as Minister of Information and Cultural Affairs. He also held an additional responsibility as Minister of State for local government.
He lost the Ballygunge Assembly constituency when the Congress party was defeated by the Left Front amid huge anti-incumbency voting patterns. In 1982, he shifted to the Jorabagan Assembly constituency and represented it till 1996. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Chowranghee in 1996 and 2001.
In 1999, he joined with Mamata Banerjee, parting ways with the Indian National Congress. This decision came from the Congress MLA, as INTUC denied him the nomination to the governing body of the ILO for the second term. He was made the Mayor of Kolkata in 2000, as a Trinamool Congress candidate. However, even after being the Mayor as a Trinamool leader, he decided not to resign as a Congress member of the Legislative Assembly. As Mayor, he had planned a 300 ft-high Kolkata gate on EM Bypass, which would have cost Rs. 20-crore. However, the project could not go ahead, as it could not obtain clearance from the Pollution Control Board.
Mukherjee was also elected to the Assembly on a Trinamool Congress ticket in 2001 from Chowrighee. He also contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 from Calcutta Northwest constituency but lost.
Conclusion
Subrata came third in the Chowranghee seat as a Congress candidate, in the 2006 state elections. Yet again, in 2006, the Congress had also fielded Mukherjee for the biennial election for a Rajya Sabha seat, but he failed to win.
In 2009, he fought from Bankura Lok Sabha constituency on the Congress ticket and lost.
In May 2010, Mukherjee left the Indian National Congress again and re-joined Trinamool Congress, leaving the post of Pradesh Congress Working President. He contested the 2011 Assembly elections from the Ballygunge seat.
He was hospitalised in SSKM Hospital, Kolkata on 24 October 2021 with serious heart problems and died of a heart attack on 4 November 2021 at the age of 75. He was cremated with full state honours at Keoratola crematorium the following day.
