Abhijit Mukherjee,son of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,on Monday joined the Congress and is likely to be nominated as the party candidate for the coming West Bengal Assembly election. ''I had been contemplating joining Congress for a long time and I think this is the right time for taking the decision,'' Abhijit who resigned on March 9 as state-owned SAIL's General manager (personnel-corporate social responsibility),told reporters here. WBPCC president Manas Bhuniya introduced Mukherjee to the media. Party sources said Abhijit would be the party's candidate from any of the constituencies in Birbhum district. Abhijit's joining active politics has been doing the rounds for sometime and he had attended a number of party programmes in his home district Birbhum. Asked for his comment on his political career,Abhijit said ''I will abide by what my party will ask me to do. As a true soldier of the party,I will follow that. He said he had taken advice from his father before deciding to join active politics. Meanwhile,the BJP has complained to West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta that Abhijit had taken undue advantage from SAIL by taking VRS from the company instead of resigning from his post to join the Congress. "We have received a complaint from Rajesh Kumar Singh,BJP vice-president,that Abhijit Mukherjee has taken undue advantage from SAIL by taking VRS although it is not offered by the company," said additional CEO N K Sahana. He said that another complaint had been received at the CEO's office alleging that Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had violated the model code of conduct by announcing certain schemes in the Rajya Sabha. Both the complaints had been sent to the Election Commission,Sahana said. The CEO has convened an all-party meeting tomorrow with representatives of the State Pollution Control Board to discuss the PCB guidelines on election campaign,he said. Informing that the full bench of the EC would be arriving in the state on March 22,the official said that next day the bench would meet representatives of political parties,district magistrates and police superintendents,besides state Home Secretary G D Gautama and Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh to review poll preparedness. In reply to a question,he said the Election Commission is likely to allow poll contestants to appoint expenditure agents as demanded by various political parties.
