Kolkata, March 3: Former BJP MP from Nadia’s Krishnanagar and Union Minister Satyabrata Mookherjee, better known as Julu Babu, passed away at his residence in Kolkata after a prolonged illness on Friday morning. Mookherjee, 90, who originally hailed from Nadia’s Kaliganj, was also very popular as a Good Samaritan. He was also a former additional solicitor general of India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President J.P.Nadda have expressed their condolences at the demise of the elderly leader, who played a key role in developing the support base of the saffron party in Bengal. He also served the Bengal BJP as the state committee president in 2008.
Born on May 8, 1932, in Sylhet, now in Bangladesh, Mookherjee earned accolades as a corporate lawyer at a pretty young age. He was a high-profile practicing lawyer with the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court.
He won the Loke Sabha poll only in 1999 from Krishnanagar and became a minister of state (Commerce) in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s cabinet (1999-2004). He also unsuccessfully fought the subsequent LS polls as a BJP Nominee from the Krishnanagar seat.
In 2014, despite the strong Modi wave, he secured the third position in the Krishnanagar seat bagging only about 16% of votes.
In 2019, at 87 he was apparently denied nomination from Krishnanagar despite the demand of a sizeable section of the party. He was replaced by ace footballer Kalyan Chaubey.
In an interview, he told The NfN that “age” is a bar before “good governance and a good leader should make way to welcome young leadership”.
“I should not put hurdle before party’s poll prospect and rather seniors like me should make way to welcome new generation. Young leadership would show us new ways, and share new ideas. This should be followed by all senior leaders”, he told this correspondent.
To prove his words, Julu Babu despite his ailing health walked in support of Chaubey.
On Friday, many people gathered at his residence in Jamalpur village on the bank of Paglachandi River to pay the last tribute to the deceased leader.