From a primary school teacher to being a strongman in the Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) youth wing and becoming a BJP MP and finally a Union Minister, Nisith Pramanik’s political graph has only gone upwards.
He became the youngest minister at 35 years in the Union government when he was sworn in as the MoS in the Ministry of Home Affairs and also in the Ministry of Youth Affairs in Sports.
Pramanik, a resident of Dinhata in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, holds a Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) degree. Following his fallout with the TMC leadership he joined the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was given a ticket from Cooch Behar constituency and emerged victorious.
His relationship with the TMC leadership started to become frosty in 2018 as he was unhappy with the candidate selection in the panchayat elections. However, the TMC leadership got to know of Pramanik’s organisational clout in the district when he fielded over 300 candidates in the panchayat elections of his own choice against the TMC candidates. Several of the candidates fielded by him emerged victorious leaving the TMC red-faced.
Pramanik’s political career took another interesting turn when the BJP leadership sprang a surprise by fielding him from the Dinahata Assembly constituency in the Assembly elections. Although he managed to defeat TMC’s Udyan Guha, the margin was just 57 votes, far less than the 30,000 votes margin that Pramanik predicted on poll day.
However, he later resigned as an MLA and was kept as an MP by the BJP leadership. Pramanik has been one of the most bitter critics of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and relentlessly attacked her government on the issue of post-poll violence.
The newly sworn-in minister has his own share of controversy. According to his affidavit submitted to the Election Commission, he has 11 criminal cases, including those related to serious offences.
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