Kolkata: Within the information for his controversial assertion concerning the Muslim inhabitants in his state, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Firhad Hakim drew a uncommon censure from his social gathering boss and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Muslims, he had advised college students from the group in his Saturday tackle, would quickly change into a majority within the state.
The TMC was swift in distancing itself from the assertion, whereas the opposition took glee at his discomfiture. However, Trinamool insiders preserve that the newest controversy is unlikely to make any dent to his clout within the social gathering and, extra importantly, his ties with Mamata.
Political watchers assert that it’s not the primary time that the Kolkata mayor is dealing with flak for his feedback: he had described Backyard Attain constituency as “mini-Pakistan” in 2016 and known as the BJP’s Basirhat parliamentary candidate a “maal” in November.
Nothing has shaken Mamata’s belief on her Cupboard minister, be it the Narada sting controversy, or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid at his residence final 12 months in its probe into an alleged recruitment rip-off in civic our bodies.
A key minority face of the Trinamool, Hakim wears his loyalty to Mamata on his sleeve. In his personal phrases, Hakim had dodged two bullets outdoors Writers Constructing, the previous state secretariat, when the police opened fireplace at a rally in 1993 whereas he was main a rally with Mamata. “The boy subsequent to me was hit by a bullet. However that didn’t cease me, I may give my life for Mamata Banerjee,” Hakim had stated.
The four-time MLA is well-known for organising a mega Durga Puja, the most important non secular competition in West Bengal. Yearly, Chetla Agrani, the crowd-puller pandal in Kolkata led by Hakim, witnesses the arrival of Mamata.
As soon as, Mamata advised reporters that ‘Bobby’, as Hakim is named within the internal social gathering circles, and Trinamool minister Aroop Biswas at all times competed on who may organise a much bigger puja and who bought the primary appointment from the CM to inaugurate the pandal.
Hakim started his political profession with scholar politics within the Congress within the early Nineteen Nineties. He has by no means shied away from praising former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who he considers a task mannequin after Mamata.
Again in 1984, when a 29-year-old Mamata fought her first Lok Sabha ballot, Hakim turned her trusted lieutenant. “In these days, there have been hand-written voter slips. I wrote slips for Mamata Didi as she was certainly one of us preventing the large election; since then our affiliation solely strengthened. If she had not damaged away from the Congress and made Trinamool, I wouldn’t have been the place I’m at this time,” Hakim stated in a tv interview after being appointed the primary minority mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Company (KMC) since Independence in 2018.
There are very uncommon events when Hakim is just not noticed subsequent to Mamata at public occasions. Some inside the Trinamool describe him because the CM’s “man-Friday” particularly after Didi’s loyalist and former training minister Partho Banerjee was arrested for irregularities in class recruitments in July 2022.
From hassle taking pictures in districts to dealing with regulation and order, Hakim is seen on the forefront crisis-crossing the state to hold out Mamata’s order. “I hope in my subsequent life I’m both a singer or an actor, then my ticket in TMC is confirmed,” Hakim as soon as jokingly advised reporters on the state meeting.
His room on the Vidhan Sabha is at all times filled with reporters, cupboard colleagues and officers. In between work, he shares tales of his previous and anecdotes afterall his political profession has seen a gentle rise inside the ranks.
In an interview to Anandabazar Patrika two years in the past, the TMC chief had stated that he was a businessman by career, whereas a politician by behavior. Hakim had gone on to remember how he, together with 5 buddies, had began an ice mill in Canning after securing a authorities mortgage in his youth.
The 65-year-old was a KMC councillor for 15 years, borough chairman, MMIC (Member Mayor In Council), earlier than changing into a minister in Mamata’s cupboard. He has held key portfolios resembling transport and fireplace departments, and concrete growth, and has been the Kolkata Mayor for the reason that final 5 years.
An avid sports activities fan, Hakim along with his first wage of Rs 450 had purchased membership of the East Bengal soccer membership. “I had paid Rs 406 in order that I may sit within the gallery and watch the matches,” he recalled.
Hakim has three daughters, the youngest is a lawyer, the center a physician, and the eldest is with the Trinamool’s ladies wing. When he’s not holding political conferences, he spends time along with his granddaughter whom he likes to drop to highschool and finds her celebration themes “a job to meet”.
Per week after the Trinamool’s 2021 meeting election victory, a drama unfolded outdoors Hakim’s home, when CBI officers reached to arrest him within the Narada sting tape case. Hakim was allegedly caught on digital camera taking bribes within the tape that was launched earlier than the 2016 state polls.
His supporters lay on the street, daring the CBI workforce to take their chief over their useless our bodies. His supporters gheraoed the CBI workplace amid Covid restrictions and pelted stones, infuriated over the arrest of their chief.
Hakim’s eldest daughter Priyadarshini had appealed to the supporters to keep up calm, because the regulation and order scenario was cited by the CBI in a midnight listening to of the Calcutta Excessive Court docket to problem the bail he had secured.
Hakim was arrested alongside along with his Trinamool colleagues Madan Mitra and Shovan Chatterjee in Could, 2021. However, three years on, the TMC strongman upholds a clear picture for his chief Mamata.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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