Jyotipriyo Mallick: From Mamata loyalist to 'scam-tainted' minister
Jyotipriyo Mallick, a senior TMC leader, saw his four-decade-long political journey take a severe hit as the Enforcement Directorate arrested him on Friday in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged multi-crore ration distribution scam in the state. Sixty-five-year-old Mallick presently holds the portfolios of Forest Affairs and Non-Conventional and Renewable Energy in the Mamata Banerjee government. He was the West Bengal Food Supplies Minister from 2011 to 2021, a period during which the alleged irregularities in ration distribution reportedly took place.
Mallick stepped into politics as a leader of the Congress students' wing — Chatra Parishad — in the early eighties during his college years, inspired by then-firebrand mass leaders Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Mamata Banerjee.
Born into a middle-class family in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district in 1958, he delved into politics while pursuing a career in law.
Recognizing his organizational skills, a local youth Congress leader took Mallick under his wing and introduced him to Mamata Banerjee, who was emerging as a rising star in Bengal politics and the president of the State Youth Congress.
In the early nineties, he became a close associate of Mamata Banerjee, who was then the state Youth Congress president.
In 1998, Mallick was among a few Congress leaders from different districts who broke away from the grand old party to form the Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee's leadership.
A five-time MLA, he first entered the West Bengal Assembly in 2001, representing the Gaighata constituency in North 24 Parganas district.
