Marxist crorepatis rule in Bengal

KOLKATA: Marxist crorepatis! Sounds paradoxical? It isn’t. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s Cabinet now has two of this vaulted species. Law minister Rabilal Moitra of the CPM is one.

The other is fisheries minister Kiranmoy Nanda who belongs to the West Bengal Socialist Party.

The story of Leftist crorepatis doesn’t end here, of course. Prativa Mukherjee, a CPM MLA from Asansol in Burdwan district, also has assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

The stats were revealed recently by West Bengal Election Watch (WBEW), a voluntary organisation, which conducted a survey on assets, liabilities and criminal records of all the 1128 candidates of various political parties, who had contested the recent elections in West Bengal.

The compilation was done on the basis of affidavits filed by them before the Election Commission. When ET caught up with him on Saturday, Mr Moitra did not deny. “As per EC rules, every poll candidate has to file an affidavit declaring his or her property and some other issues. I have also filed the affidavit and shown my family property, which is worth Rs 1 crore,” Mr Moitra said.

The Left apart, quite a few of so called “people’s leaders” belonging to other political parties also belong to the rich brigade. Mr Manas Bhunia of the Congress is a crorepati too. He is an MLA. Mr Bhunia does not deny either. “It is known to everybody that I belong to a jamindar family of West Midnapore. We have a plot of land at Pemathani in West Midnapore which costs Rs 1.5 crore. What is wrong in it? Our family strictly follows the land ceiling act.

But there is something I also want to tell you. The land is our only asset. We do not have huge bank balances,” Dr Bhunia told ET.

Now, Trinamool Congress. Despite the party supremo’s by-now patented aunty-next-door look, two party MLAs, Javed Ahmed Khan and Sadhan Pandey are corepatis. Rubi Noor of the Congress is also a crorepati MLA.

Biplab Halim, general secretary of the WBEW which conducted the survey, said altogether 45 MLAs of the total 294 in West Bengal had pending criminal cases against them, of whom 19 belonged to the CPIM, nine to the Trinamool Congress and six to the Congress.

The other MLAs with criminal cases pending against them belong to different political parties. Two CPM ministers Narayan Biswas and Susanta Ghosh also have pending criminal cases against them, the study reveals.

Altogether 117 MLAs don’t have PAN which suggest that none of them pay income tax. Of the 117 MLAs who don’t pay income tax, 73 belong to the CPM, 11 to Trinamool Congress and five to the Congress.

Mr Halim said they wanted the state government to refer the criminal cases in which the MLAs had been involved to fast track court for speedy disposal.