Once a long-standing associate of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, state Cabinet Minister Moloy Ghatak is now in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief’s bad books after drawing her ire over his conduct during the West Bengal Bar Council elections held on Monday. On Tuesday, Banerjee replaced Ghatak as the state law minister, though he has retained his labour portfolio.
According to TMC sources, the “disciplinary action” was prompted by a complaint Banerjee received ahead of voting in the Bar Council elections: that Asansol Uttar MLA Ghatak, 70, was “tacitly supporting the Opposition group” of lawyers in the fray.
The portfolio shuffle comes just ahead of the Assembly polls and weeks after Banerjee herself appeared in the Supreme Court over her petition challenging the Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, alleging that the exercise was being used to selectively delete voters and that Bengal was being “targeted”.
A senior TMC leader and close associate of Banerjee told The Indian Express, “Mamata Banerjee was angry with Ghatak for many days as she had the impression that he failed to handle many cases of the state government that are running in the Supreme Court … Many trade union leaders of the party also complained to the CM that he mishandled issues of tea garden labour. However, Mamata Banerjee was not ready to remove him from all his departments just ahead of the elections. So, she has kept him on as the Cabinet Minister of the labour department.”
But this is not the first time Ghatak has been involved in controversy within the party. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he fought with the TMC’s Asansol candidate Dola Sen. Ghatak had been eyeing the seat in Paschim Bardhaman district where he is an influential leader, but lost out to Sen. After BJP candidate Babul Supriyo won the seat, Ghatak faced allegations of not campaigning adequately for his party colleague. However, Ghatak and Sen later buried the hatchet.
In 2022, after Supriyo quit as Asansol MP, Ghatak was credited with turning around the TMC’s fortunes in the constituency in the ensuing bypoll through his organisational know-how, helping actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha defeat the BJP’s Agnimitra Paul by more than 3 lakh votes.
A seasoned politician known for being an able organiser, Ghatak was born in 1956 in Ukhra in Paschim Bardhaman to a family of lawyers. He completed his undergraduate degree in political science from Ananda Chandra College, Jalpaiguri before receiving an LLB from the University of Calcutta in 1982. His father Phani Bhushan Ghatak was also a lawyer, as were four of his brothers, three of whom were also involved in politics.
Before entering politics, Ghatak practised as an advocate, mainly at the Asansol court. He began his political career with the Congress, but jumped ship with Mamata Banerjee when she resigned from the party to launch the TMC in 1998.
“Moloy Ghatak, Hareram Singh, V Sivadasan Dashu, Narendranath Chakraborty are among some of the oldest lieutenants of Mamata Banerjee who formed the TMC’s organisation in Asansol and Paschim Bardhaman district. Among them, Ghatak is the senior-most leader and knew all areas of Asansol city like his home,” said a senior TMC leader from Asansol.
After raising the TMC’s profile in Asansol during the party’s early days, Ghatak was elected as the MLA from Hirapur in the district in 2001 but lost his re-election bid five years later. Despite contesting several Lok Sabha polls during the Left’s rule in Bengal, Ghatak failed to win.
In the 2011 Assembly polls, when the TMC stormed to power for the first time, Ghatak won from Asansol Uttar, retaining the seat in 2016 and 2021. In November 2012, he was elevated to Banerjee’s Cabinet, first as the state Agriculture Minister. In July 2014, his portfolio was changed to law and labour.
In a Cabinet reshuffle in 2021, after the TMC government won a third consecutive term in power, Ghatak’s portfolio was again changed and he was appointed the Public Works Department (PWD) Minister, apart from retaining the law portfolio. A year later, he was removed from the PWD and handed charge of the labour department.
In 2022, Ghatak was the subject of Central Bureau of Investigation raids at several of his residences in connection with his alleged involvement in a coal smuggling case. CBI officers since morning raided three residences across Asansol and Kolkata. He had since also been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in the coal smuggling case. However, Ghatak has denied any involvement in the alleged smuggling case.