Behala East: Trinamool names Ratna Chatterjee candidate, who will be BJP’s candidate?

One of the most interesting fights in 2021 Assembly seats in West Bengal may turn out to be Behala East constituency where Trinamool Congress has named Ratna Chatterjee. Who is Ratna Chatterjee? She is the estranged wife of sitting MLA from Behala East constituency, Sovon Chatterjee, who has now joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). And that’s exactly why the fight will turn out to be interesting. And there’s both the political and personal here.

Sovon Chatterjee has won twice as MLA from Behala East, and he has been one of the closest aides of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. He was also former Kolkata Mayor of Kolkata and former ministers of some of the most important departments in the government.

However, Sovon Chatterjee stepped down as Mayor in November 2018, and also as minister, and joined the BJP in August 2019. His name was involved in the Narada tapes, and he has been under probe. After joining the BJP, Sovon Chatterjee was seen in several rallies of the party along with his close friend Baishakhi Banerjee. Sovon has now separated from Ratna, and both of them were with Mamata Banerjee from the start of the Trinamool Congress, and Ratna Chatterjee’s father has also been a Trinamool MLA.

Under this backdrop, naming Ratna Chatterjee as the Trinamool candidate is significant, even though the BJP’s candidate from this seat is not yet known. Will Sovon Chatterjee contest from here as the BJP candidate? Will his friend Baishakhi Banerjee, who has also joined the BJP, contest from here? After the announcement of the Trinamool Congress list, there are talks that the contest may turn even more interesting if either Sovon or Baishakhi are fielded as BJP candidate from Behala East.

Prior to 2001, Behala East had mostly been won by the CPI(M), and it was in 2001 that Trinamool’s Parash Dutta won from here. The CPI(M) got the seat back in 2006, and after changing of its boundaries due to delimitation, Sovon Chatterjee won from here in 2011, and again in 2016.

Ratna Chatterjee has already spoken publicly against her husband Sovon who separated from her. She has said that he deserted not only his party, but also left her and their two children.