Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit becomes WBIDFC chairman

KOLKATA: Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of Congress veteran and union finance minister Pranab Mukhejee, has become the chairman of West Bengal Industrial Development Finance Corporation.

The junior Mukherjee replaced state finance secretary CM Bachhawat as the head of the corporation, which is a special purpose vehicle floated in 1997 for providing funding support to state’s insfrastructure projects. The Mamata Banerjee government has issued the appointment letter on Friday evening.

Insiders in WBIDFC welcomed the move to bringing in someone like Abhijit, who had 26 years of experience in bluechip PSUs like BHEL and SAIL. "The state-run corporation needs to be run professionally and his corporate experience will help," a senior WBIDFC official said.

Abhijit Mukherjee, who joined politics just recently, has become an MLA from Nalhati of Birbhum district with Congress ticket. The choice of Nalhati assembly constituency to fight his first general election seems to be obvious since it is close to the family's ancestral home in Miriti village near Kirnahar in Birbhum.

After he won the election, many thought he would get a ministerial berth in the new government in West Bengal. But apparently, the state Pradesh Congress committee did not recommend his name to the party highcommand Sonia Gandhi.
Mukherjee has a degree in mechanical engineering from Jadavpur University. Prior to joining politics, he was general manager in SAIL and was in charge of corporate social responsibility.