BENGAL POLITICS IS FILLED WITH SUBSTANDARD PEOPLE

In the port city of Haldia, near the mouth of the Hooghly river, hundreds of people chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay’s black Scorpio passes by.

- JAVED PARVESH

He is showered with flowers wherever he goes and is attracting attention from all sections of society.

Gangopadhyay resigned as judge on March 5, five months before he was due to retire, and is the BJP candidate from Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency. The rival candidate, Debanghu Bhattacharya of the Trinamool Congress, is less than half his age. The 27-year-old, who heads Trinamool’s social media cell, created the party’s popular ‘Khela Hobe’ campaign during the 2021 Assembly polls.

Gangopadhyay was seen as a bold fighter against corruption. He even clashed with fellow judges and caused disruptions in the judicial system, prompting the Supreme Court to convene special sittings on holidays and outside regular court hours to handle cases involving him. But people warmed to him, particularly after his rulings in a case of alleged irregularities in teacher recruitment by the West Bengal School Service Commission and his call for a CBI investigation of the scam.

The case led to the arrest of Minister Partha Chatterjee and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee by the Enforcement Directorate. The investigators discovered ₹50 crore in Indian and foreign currencies and 6 kilogram gold in Arpita’s apartment. The ED had to seek the Reserve Bank of India’s help to transport the money to its office.