West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra might end his ten-year stint as he has conveyed in his close circles that he is not willing to contest elections anymore and wants to spend some time with his daughter abroad. Seventy-three-year-old Mitra who is seriously ill didn’t even present the Budget in the Assembly and interacted with the media after the session virtually.

“Amit Da will not continue as the state finance minister as he will be completing six months in the post without being elected on November 4. He has already informed the party leadership that he doesn’t want to continue in politics and administration due to ill health,” a senior party leader said.

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Though Mitra didn’t contest in the recent Assembly election because of his ill health but was continuing as the finance minister and it was expected that he would contest in the bypolls from the Khardah Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas. According to the rules, he could continue on as the finance minister for six months but within that period Mitra will have to get elected. Now, if he doesn’t want to contest the election then it is expected that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will have to nominate another finance minister for the state.

Sources in the party indicated that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will personally try to convince Mitra so that he could continue as the finance minister of the state, and even if it is not possible then he will be asked to stay as the finance advisor to the state.

“There are only two departments in the state where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee didn’t make any changes in the last ten years — one is finance handled by Amit Mitra and another is Panchayat handled by the veteran Subrata Mukherjee. This shows her immense faith in Mitra,” a senior party leader said.

Mitra, a former FICCI secretary-general, has been part of Banerjee’s close decision-making team since 2009 when the TMC was part of the UPA-2 and she was the railway minister.

After the party came to power in West Bengal in 2011, Mitra has been part of Banerjee’s cabinet and was given the charge of making a financial turnaround of the debt-ridden state.

“Mitra’s leaving the ministry will be a huge loss to the party and the state government. When he took charge ten years back, West Bengal was debt ridden state and it is he who single-handedly not only managed all the welfare schemes announced by the state government but at the same time generated revenue to implement those schemes successfully.

“Apart from that Mitra has a huge role in the GST roll out by the Centre. He has not only successfully implemented SGST in the state but also tirelessly negotiated with the Centre to settle the financial problems,” another senior leader.

Mamata Banerjee, for several reasons has rested her faith on Mitra and it was once thought he will be nominated in the proposed ‘Bidhan Parishad’ or the Upper House of the Assembly but the proposal has just been approved by the state legislative body and it needs further approval from the Centre and then the President. So, it is expected that Bidhan Parishad will not come into being very soon. Mitra was then requested to contest from Khardah where the seat is vacant because Trinamool’s Kajal Singha won the election but died of Covid before the announcement of the poll results.

“He was told that he will have to appear once in a rally and the rest of the things will be taken care of by the party. Initially he agreed but considering the pandemic situation and his deteriorating health condition, Mitra decided to stay away from politics,” another leader said.

Senior party leaders are of the opinion that the Chief Minister is likely to keep the department with herself but that also depends on her winning in the election.

Whatever might be the situation the state has already started preparing a team who will handle day to day finance of the state. “The chief minister is also thinking of a platform where senior economists will give their opinion to strengthen the economic situation of the state. The state is also thinking of retaining Mitra as the financial advisor,” the leader added.

(With inputs from IANS)