Summary:
Kolkata, Jul 28 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday relieved Partha Chatterjee, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the school jobs scam case, of his duties as minister in charge of several heavyweight portfolios including commerce and industry.
Chatterjee was also removed from all party posts and suspended from the Trinamool Congress.
His removal from these key portfolios and positions in the party came hours after TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh demanded his ouster from the cabinet and expulsion from the party.
"Partha Chatterjee, minister in charge, department of industry, commerce and enterprises, department of information technology and electronics, department of parliamentary affairs and department of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction, is hereby relieved of his duties as MIC of the aforesaid department…," an official order said.
Banerjee later said at a government event here that she will look after the portfolios held by Chatterjee till she reshuffles the cabinet.
“It has been decided that Partha Chatterjee will be removed from all party posts.
He will remain suspended from the party till the time the investigation is underway,” TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said.
Chatterjee was TMC"s secretary general for nearly two decades.
He was appointed the party"s national vice-president earlier this year.
He was also a member of TMC’s national working committee and chairman of its disciplinary committee, besides being the editor of party mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’ (Wake up, Bengal).
Abhishek Banerjee, considered no.
2 in the party, said that doors of TMC would be opened for Chatterjee only if he was proven innocent.
He also demanded that the investigation be completed within a fixed time frame.
The ED arrested Chatterjee, the TMC secretary-general, on July 23 in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in the recruitment drive by the School Service Commission (SSC).
The central agency has also arrested Chatterjee’s close associate Arpita Mukherjee and seized crores of rupees from her houses in different parts of the city.
Reacting to the development, BJP"s West Bengal president Sukanta Majumdar alleged that the TMC leadership was trying to make Chatterjee a scapegoat.
"There are several people involved in this.
Sacking Partha da alone will not save TMC," Majumdar asserted.
Actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty, who had joined the BJP ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls last year, advised Chatterjee not to shield anyone and speak out the truth.
"I personally feel that Partha Chatterjee was only the custodian of the (seized) money.