Kolkata, WEST BENGAL :
Firhard Hakim, a state minister, is all set to take up the additional role.
For the first time since independence, a Muslim face is all set to become the mayor of Kolkata. Firhard Hakim, the municipal affairs and urban development minister of West Bengal, is all set to take up the additional role of the mayor of the 94-years-old corporation. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also decided to change the deputy mayor by replacing incumbent Iqbal Ahmad with Atin Ghosh, a Member Mayor-in-Council (MMiC).
It was a role reversal in Kolkata corporation as Banerjee had earlier chosen a Hindu mayor and a Muslim deputy mayor. Syed Muhammad Usman, a Bengal Praja Party member, was the last Muslim mayor of Kolkata in undivided Bengal which had comprised of West Bengal and East Bengal (now Bangladesh). The party was formed by A.K. Fazlul Huqe, who later became the home minister of Pakistan and then the governor of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)
Hakim is known to be very close to Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek.
A meeting of the corporation councilors was called on Wednesday evening to get Hakim elected. Interestingly, Sovan Chatterjee, who resigned as mayor earlier in the day, has not been invited despite being a councilor.
Chatterjee was very careful while addressing the media shortly after sending his resignation to the corporation chairperson through his personal security staffers. He did not lash out at Banerjee, but hinted at many things
Terming his association with Banerjee for last 40 years as an emotional one, Chatterjee said, “That full moon looks like a burnt chapati today.”
When asked about his future plan of action in politics, Chatterjee said that he continues to be a member and MLA of Trinamool Congress.
“But I would have no hesitation if Mamata di asked me to resign from both,” said he. Replying to a question on whether he would be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party, as such speculation is in the air, Chatterjee said he would not respond to every other rumour.
“You would come to know what would be my future course of action at an appropriate moment,” he said.
Differences between Banerjee and Chatterjee were evident from the words of the latter, who said that instead of resigning on his own, “an instruction was sent to me to resign from the state cabinet”.
“For the last 40 years, whatever she asked me to do, I did all of them even without applying my mind. I am such a follower of her,” Chatterjee said.
After Mukul Roy, he is the second political heavyweight in Trinamool Congress who has distanced himself from Banerjee.
Chatterjee also denied reports that his relation with a college teacher was the reason behind his resignation from the ministry and as the mayor.
“In fact, I am totally in the dark on what the reason was,” said he.
Sources, however, said that Chatterjee would not jump off the TMC boat immediately. He will wait and watch before finalising the future course of action.
source: http://www.theweek.in / The Week / Home> News / by Rabi Banerjee / November 22nd, 2018