August 17, 2026 01:40 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
After SC rebuke, BCI chief apologises to NALSAR students over enrolment freeze row | Independence Day: PM Modi’s big youth pitch— AI training, free coaching amid exam row and job concerns | ‘Shakti Ki Saptadhara’: Modi reveals 7 pillars to power India’s next leap in his I-Day speech from Red Fort | West Bengal STF arrests 3 more suspected Pakistani spies in Cooch Behar | Bengal man arrested in Bengaluru over terror links, Afghanistan travel plan | Ajit Doval breaks silence on Operation Sindoor in Discovery’s explosive new docuseries | Rahul Gandhi's 'mock hug' taunt sparks row; Centre stresses 'mutual respect' with Italy | Delhi on high alert: Bomb threat to High Court, airport and multiple locations ahead of I-Day | ‘Who are they to interfere?’: CJI Surya Kant slams Bar Council of India over NALSAR students’ enrolment row | 'Shows how low Congress has sunk': BJP slams Rahul Gandhi over Modi foreign policy jibe
Sovan Chatterjee
Image Credit: IBNS File

Speculations rife over Sovan Chatterjee's return to TMC, BJP leader Arvind Menon calls on him

| @indiablooms | Aug 25, 2020, at 08:38 pm

Kolkata/UNI: With speculations rife over former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee's comeback to his former party Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s national leader Arvind Menon called on him late last night and held a closed door meeting for hours.

The "unscheduled" meeting between the two BJP leaders happened on Monday, hours after West Bengal's ruling party TMC had asked Sovan's wife Ratna Chatterjee to refrain from the party's organisational activity at Ward No 131, also in South Kolkata.

Sovan Chatterjee, also an MLA, represents the ward as the Councillor.

The Chatterjees are having litigation for marital separation.

Ratna was TMC’s coordinator of the "Banglar Gorbo Mamata" programme in the Behala East constituency, where Sovon Chatterjee is the elected MLA.

She was asked to give up the responsibility.

Recently, she was asked to give up other party responsibilities in ward 131 of the area.

Sovan after resigning from the Mayoral post joined the BJP in 2019 along with his friend and close confidante Baisakhi Banerjee, but had been keeping a very low profile with the saffron brigade since then.

Rumours were going around and speculations were rife in the political circles in the past months that Sovan might return to the TMC, and party's top leaders had been making such efforts for long.

Sovan was also rumoured to have offered to return to TMC once the party removed Ratna Chatterjee from organisational work in the area.

It might be mentioned that party supremo Mamata Banerjee recently said those leaders, who have left her party, are welcome to rejoin.

She urged them to forget the past and work ahead for the future.

With Assembly elections in 2021, Banerjee wants to take on the BJP with leaders having power and authority and able to win votes for the party.

Latest report said Arvind Menon, also co-incharge of West Bengal, was seen returning from Sovan's residence around 11:30 pm after spending over two hours there in South Kolkata.

Though Menon was tight-lipped to a volley of queries of a few media persons there, the BJP leader said, "You would come to know what will happen shortly."

Sources in the political circles say the BJP was in favour of giving organisational power to the former Mayor ahead of 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal. 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.