Amit Mitra, Senior Trinamool leader, will most likely step down as the West Bengal Finance Minister due to ill-health. Amit Mitra is 74 years old and did not contest in the Assembly elections held recently. He was handed the Finance Portfolio by Mamata Banerjee and had been at the post since 2011 when the TMC first came in the power to Bengal.
Amit Mitra could remain at his post for six months maximum unless he contests for a by-election and wins.
A senior leader of Trinamool said that Amit Mitra would complete six months as state finance minister in the third Mamata Banerjee cabinet on November 4, and since he was not an MLA minister, he would have to leave the post after six months or seek elections through bypolls. However, he had informed the party that he did not want to continue as the state minister after November 4 due to ill health.
It has been alleged that Mamata Banerjee would keep the Finance portfolio until she found someone suitable to take charge as the next Finance Minister.
Mamata Banerjee had presented the interim on behalf of Mitra as he was not present for the interim budget in February and also during the tabling of the state budget in the previous week, while the state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee tabled the budget in the previous week.
Mitra was made the Finance Minister after the party had come to power in West Bengal in 2011. He was a two-time MLA from Khardah constituency in North 24 Parganas, and he also held the industry portfolio since the year 2014.