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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\nMidnapore: Chhatradhar Mahato, the former People\u2019s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) leader in Jangalmahal, was busy sowing paddy in his field when he got a call from Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee on Thursday about his induction into the state committee as secretary.
\u201cI led the stir in Jangalmahal for the sake of development of the area. I fought for jail inmates when I was in jail. When I came back home after my release in February 2020, I was happy to see that many of the demands we raised during the Jangalmahal stir had been fulfilled. Lalgarh has a five-storeyed nursing college now and a bridge. The chief minister took the initiative,\u201d said the PCPA-turned-Trinamool leader.
Mahato\u2019s rehabilitation in mainstream politics is possibly the fastest in Bengal\u2019s political history. The firebrand leader joined the Trinamool state committee within five months of his release from jail on February 1.
Mahato has a total 39 criminal cases against him, of which 14 are pending. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is probing two cases \u2014 one related to blocking Rajdhani Express at Jhargram\u2019s Banstala in October 2009, and the other a kidnapping case at Lalgarh\u2019s Dharampur. \u201cI haven\u2019t got any notice from NIA yet. But I have heard that NIA has started investigation,\u201d he said.
Mahato doesn\u2019t justify all the activities during the Jangalmahal uprising. \u201cThe stir inflicted damage on many people. I also suffered. I used to work with villagers and local leaders of mainstream political parties. I got in touch with Didi (Mamata Banerjee) in the 1990s. We came close in 2008. I was a Chhatra Parishad activist in my student life. I had no connect with Maoists, who ran an independent organization in the area,\u201d he said.
Over the last five months since his release, Mahato didn\u2019t sit idle. He kept meeting old associates and took part in relief activities on behalf of the local club. Addressing a gathering at Gobiballavpur, soon after his release, Mahato said he was with the party (Trinamool) but without posts.
While TMC is relying on Mahato to win back the party\u2019s lost support bases, locals no longer bank on the \u201creformed Chhatradhar\u201d.
A Lalgarh villager pointed to Mahato\u2019s changed lifestyle. \u201cHis wife is the government nominee in the women and child welfare department. His elder son is a temporary employee in Vidyasagar Cooperative Bank and his younger son a casual staffer in the state education department. Look at us. What have we got?\u201d said a former PCPA activist from Lalgarh. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n