West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra dies at 78

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, July 30

Veteran Congress leader and state unit chief of the party Somendranath Mitra, better known as Somen Mitra, died here on Thursday morning in a private clinic. He was 78.

Rohan Mitra, Somen’s son, broke the news on Twitter. “I have lost my father,” Rohan tweeted at 2 am.

The WBPCC announced Mitra’s death on the micro-blogging site an hour later. “WBPCC president Somen Mitra has breathed his last a short while ago. As we struggle to come to terms with this immense loss, all our prayers and thoughts are with Dada’s family,” @INCWestBengal tweeted.

In a condolence message, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was deeply saddened by the death of Mitra. “I knew this experienced political leader well and enjoyed good relations with him. His death is a great loss to politics,” Banerjee said.

Mamata, who was initially with the Congress, left the party after she was challenged by Mitra in the Congress’s organisational election. Mitra, however, later quit from PCC chief’s post owning responsibility for the party’s disastrous performance in the 1998 elections. He made a return as Congress president 20 years later in an unforeseen move by the Congress high command.

Mitra, who won multiple times from the now-abolished Sealdah Assembly constituency, had a stint in the Lok Sabha as the TMC representative from Diamond Harbour constituency. This was in 2009. He returned to the Congress before the next elections were held in 2014.

Mitra, after he was brought back as PCC chief in September 2018, played a key role in firming up the party’s alliance with the Left parties in the state.