They included BJP leader Dilip Ghosh, CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra and Congress senior Pradip Bhattacharya, among others. Former Trinamool MP and Mukherjee’s personal friend Moon Moon Sen and footballer Subrata Bhattacharya went to Rabindra Sadan to pay respect to the departed leader. West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar came down from Raj Bhavan to bid farewell to this senior lawmaker at the West Bengal Assembly. Trinamool national secretary Abhishek Banerjee was present at Keoratala crematorium.
Subrata Mukherjee was cremated with full state honours on Friday evening. The veteran politician was given the gun salute at Keoratala crematorium
For chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Mukherjee’s demise on Diwali night was like a “pall of gloom in the festival of lights.” Mamata couldn’t prepare her to be part of the farewell journey of her political mentor.
Mukherjee was like a guardian to most Trinamool seniors. “He was to us the Uttam Kumar of politics. He taught me many things on parliamentary procedures when I joined as an MLA in 2009,” said state transport minister Firhad Hakim. Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee joined Chhatra Parishad when Mukherjee was at the helm. “I didn’t join Chhatra Parishad weighing ideological nitty-gritties. I was deeply influenced by Subratada,” said Chatterjee, also the state parliamentary affairs minister. Education minister Bratya Basu recollected Mukherjee’s wit in the West Bengal Assembly sessions.
Ghosh said Mukherjee was a guardian to all lawmakers. “I had the opportunity of coming in close touch with him for five years when I became an MLA. We used to interact often. His demise has left a void in Bengal politics,”
he said. Leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari remembered how Mukherjee as protem Speaker extended the oath-taking by 15 minutes to make him take the oath as an MLA. “The slot fixed for me was 3 pm. But I got caught up in the high court and was getting delayed. Mukherjee told me over phone that he was extending the oath-taking slot by another 15 minutes. He could rise above petty politics. His demise came all of a sudden,” Adhikari said.
Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury called Mukherjee a “political star”. “It was a generation in opposition politics. Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, Subrata and Somen Mitra were the three musketeers of opposition politics. Mukherjee was the last member of that brand of politics, different from these days,” Chowdhury said. Mukherjee was also a mentor to former leader of opposition Abdul Mannan.
Left Front chairman Biman Basu said: “Subrata Mukherjee belonged to the Congress and later joined Trinamool. But he used to keep in touch with all parties.” Former Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya held that Mukherjee ran the Kolkata Municipal Corporation “honestly”. Mishra said the Left Front government after assuming office in 1977 implemented the panchayati raj law drafted by Mukherjee.
Footballer Bhattacharya remembered Mukherjee’s long association with the Mohun Bagan Club. “How can I forget that he got me signed for the club?” he said.
But Mukherjee’s outreach was beyond the who’s who of Bengal. He was a loving brother to his three sisters who gave him ‘bhai phonta’. “He was supposed to reach home today. We knew that we couldn’t make food for him this year. He wanted to have narus. But it is all over now,” said Mukherjee’s sister Bulbul Chatterjee.
Had multiple and critical blocks, say doctors:
SSKM Hospital medical board members attending to Mukherjee said he had an ischemic heart with multiple critical blocks in his coronary arteries since 2014 and he suffered a cardiac arrest this time. “It is not stent thrombosis. He died of a sudden cardiac arrest due to ventricular arrhythmia that can happen even after angioplasty or bypass surgery,” a doctor clarified.
Doctors had alerted the minister and his colleagues about the imminent danger when he went for a check-up at SSKM Hospital after the May assembly poll. “He was a workaholic and could not make time for undergoing the angioplasty that doctors advised him in 2014,” a medical team member said. Mukherjee was also suffering from hypertension, diabetes, chest and kidney ailments.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/party-lines-blur-in-final-farewell-to-subrata/articleshow/87545276.cms
