Kolkata, May 7 (IANS) Chandranath Rath, the long-time personal assistant of Suvendu Adhikari, who was shot dead by bike-borne assailants, was the latter’s Man Friday.

From organising the busy schedule as the Leader of Opposition to maintaining his files, from conducting preparatory exercises for his meetings to handling his calls, Rath became an integral part of Adhikari’s political life in the last seven years.

A former Indian Air Force serviceman, 42-year-old Rath, hailed from Adhikari’s native district of East Midnapore. His family had long been associated with the Adhikari family, even when the latter was associated with Trinamool Congress, before Suvendu Adhikari joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.

After serving the Indian Air Force for around 18 years, Rath engaged himself permanently as a full-time associate and personal assistant of Adhikari in 2019, when the latter was a member of the state cabinet during the second term of the Mamata Banerjee-led and Trinamool Congress-ruled regime in West Bengal between 2016 and 2021.

When, before the 2021 Assembly elections, Adhikari joined the BJP, he again became the latter’s shadow. After winning the elections from Nandigram Assembly constituency in 2021 by defeating the outgoing Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, Adhikari became the LoP in the Assembly and chose Rath as his personal assistant.

Before the Assembly elections this year, there was a saying in the media circle and also within the close circles of Adhikari, that if the BJP comes to power in West Bengal and if Adhikari becomes the Chief Minister of the first BJP-ruled government in West Bengal since independence, Rath will surely be the Executive Assistant to the new Chief Minister.

The BJP has achieved a landslide victory in West Bengal, with Adhikari defeating Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in South Kolkata, besides clinching a win simultaneously from his native Nandigram seat.

Rath’s family members have claimed that he was spiritually minded since his student days and even expressed a desire to become a monk once.

–IANS

src/dpb