Investment banker to MP: journey of TMC MP Mahua Moitra

From the jet set life of an investment banker working in the US and UK to the tumultuous Indian politics Mahua Moitra, Trinamool Congress’(TMC) newly elected MP from Krishnanagar Lok Sabha constituency has come a long way.

Despite the saffron surge in Bengal Moitra thwarted BJP’s aim of wresting the Krishnanagar seat from TMC by defeating the saffron party’s Kalyan Chaubey with a margin of 63,218 votes.

Spending a considerable part of her childhood in Assam and Kolkata, Moitra left for the US to study mathematics and economics at the Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She worked as an investment banker in the US and UK before quitting her job at JP Morgan in London to return to India and join politics in 2008.

Her political career started with a brief stint in Congress in West Bengal. But she got disillusioned with the grand old party upon realising that it had very little ground-level presence in the state. Impressed by the strong leadership of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Moitra joined the party in 2010.

Six years after Moitra joined TMC, the party supremo sprang a surprise by fielding her from Karimpur Assembly segment in the 2016 Assembly elections. Her candidature did not go down well with a section of TMC leaders who claimed that her corporate background and lifestyle were not suited for the wear and tear of Bengal politics.

The feisty Moitra proved that the Chief Minister was right in keeping faith in her as she emerged victorious.

Moitra’s performance in Karimpur where she had done work worth Rs.150 crore did not go unnoticed. Banerjee decided to field her from Krishnanagar parliamentary constituency in Nadia district in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

This time BJP tried to label her as an ‘outsider”, a charge she had brushed aside arguing that she has “ancestral roots” in the district and will not have any difficulty working there.

Her intense campaigning focusing on direct contact with people coupled with TMC’s strong organisation in Nadia ensured her victory.

However, Moitra’s activities are not just limited to politics. She has filed petitions in the Supreme Court against the BJP-led government’s effort of internet and social media surveillance.

These include petitions against the UIDAI’s effort to analyse the public mood regarding Aadhaar through social media and against the Home Ministry’s notification giving sweeping powers to 10 government agencies to monitor personal computers in a bid to prevent crimes.