What about Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee's big scandal?
Kolkata's first citizen’s private life is now literally an open book for all to read, interpret, opine, gossip and debate about.
The city, not quite used to being fed such juicy tidbits about the private lives of politicians, is lapping up the new information voraciously and the media is going all out to serve it all hot and sizzling on a platter.
A month or so back, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee admonished Kolkata’s first citizen, aka mayor Sovan Chatterjee in the Assembly lobby, for not focussing enough on his ministerial and mayoral responsibilities and concentrating more on court cases. The dig came after Chatterjee filed for divorce.
The news of the mayor's ongoing divorce and his closeness/ friendship with a college teacher-cum-party functionary was out in the public domain, more so because the chief minister gave the mayor a dressing down in public.
Soon after, the chief minister stripped him off his Z Plus security cover and it became evident that Banerjee's once blue-eyed boy Kanan (as he was fondly called) was falling out of favour and grace.
Trinamool Congress (TMC), being a party guided by the weathercock as it were — where all heads bow down to where the wind blows, in other words where the chief signals — instantly took a stand on Chatterjee.
In party circles he was being dismissed as a person whose fortune was sinking.
The mayor continued to sulk and deliberately kept himself aloof and removed from the party’s activities and administrative responsibilities, triggering speculation that he may resign. He was not attending to the corporation, allegedly skipped important meetings and concentrated on sorting out issues in his personal life. He lodged an FIR with police, alleging that his wife would throw him out of his brother-in-law's flat, where he was temporarily residing, following the breakup.
He alleged that he was betrayed by his wife and would go bankrupt because he trusted her in financial matters, virtually giving her a blank cheque for everything.
When Chatterjee was summoned by the ED in relation to the Narada scam, he had told the investigation agency that his wife handled his finances and bank accounts.
Now things have come to such a pass that the mayor, his estranged wife and the good "friend-in-need" are washing their dirty linen in public. The mayor had alleged that his wife's extravagant ways and her habit of squandering lakhs have made him a virtual beggar.
The wife rebuffed him saying the Income Tax department and ED needed to look into the mayor's source of income since, by his own admission, lakhs were being splurged.
In their fits of fury, both the mayor and his wife are treading the dangerous zone of leaking secrets that may land them and their party in trouble.
Meanwhile, the good friend has also spoken up and vouched her support — emotional, moral and otherwise — and friendship for the mayor, till death do them part. The mayor, in turn, has responded by promising to be with his friend till his last breath.
The Trinamool Congress chief, who, rubbishing rumours of the first citizen's resignation, tried to bury the hatchet and called up the mayor to advise him on carrying out his duties, has been let down.
The mayor is not letting the issue of his private life die down. In fact, he has gone on to defend his good friend with verve and vitality.
He is stoking the fire and allowing it to grow, much to the embarrassment of the party. Today, the party considered it prudent to relieve the mayor of any responsibilities in the Panchayat election, even though he's in charge of the key South 24 Parganas district.
There will be more political striptease in future, until then the trio has enough to keep the audience entertained!