New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s look within the Supreme Court docket Wednesday to argue her petition in opposition to the Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls induced a stir, largely due to the sheer novelty of the transfer and its unmistakable political messaging.

Nevertheless, it didn’t come as an entire shock to Mamata’s long-time political associates, who’ve seen her don the black gown earlier than. Through the years, Mamata has steadily risen by way of the ranks—from an peculiar occasion employee to the Chief of the Opposition in Bengal, and finally the chief minister—typically mixing politics with the courtroom.

In a single occasion, mentioned senior journalist and political commentator Jayanta Ghosal, she obtained bail for 41 arrested individuals.

Roy, who has labored with Mamata because the Nineteen Seventies once they have been each within the Congress, mentioned the district courts the place she argued as a lawyer included Alipur, Balurghat and Bankshall.

The entrance web page of the main Bengali every day Sangbad Pratidin dated 10 July 1996 featured an image of Mamata in a lawyer’s apparel on the Bankshall Court docket in Kolkata. Mamata resigned from the Congress in December 1997 and fashioned the Trinamool Congress on 1 January 1998.

The final time she donned the black gown was in June 2003 when she appeared in Bankshall court docket after seven Mayor-in-Council members of the Kolkata Municipal Company have been arrested. Nevertheless, she didn’t plead for the accused.

“Repeatedly, she got here to the defence of our occasion staff once they have been being persecuted through the rule of the Left Entrance attributable to political rivalry. Somebody like me, who by no means even slapped anybody, had 25 circumstances; so you possibly can properly think about the extent of intimidation that prevailed then. It’s in that local weather that she argued these circumstances,” Roy recalled.

In accordance with the chief minister’s election affidavits, Mamata accomplished her regulation diploma from Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Legislation Faculty in Kolkata. To make certain, on Wednesday, Mamata appeared within the Supreme Court docket not within the capability of a lawyer, however as a petitioner-in-person.

Roy termed it “historic and distinctive”.

“She appeared within the apex court docket for the primary time, and the best way she positioned her arguments, with the consent of the court docket, was additionally outstanding. Her presentation was like that of a senior counsel, pinpointing the problems she needed to flag. To her credit score, she additionally made a political level by putting on report that the Election Fee was working on the behest of the ruling BJP,” Roy mentioned.

Ghosal, who’s Mamata’s biographer and in addition briefly labored as her adviser, mentioned she typically recounts situations of showing as a lawyer to safe the discharge of occasion staff prior to now.

He underlined that the political significance of her look within the Supreme Court docket on Wednesday couldn’t be emphasised sufficient.

“Firstly, she has captured the political centre stage not simply within the state, however nationally. Even the BJP’s central management is conceding that she is shaping the political narrative forward of the meeting elections,” the TMC Rajya Sabha MP mentioned.

“The BJP has been left on the defensive as a substitute of enjoying up anti-incumbency in opposition to her authorities. She can also be cashing in on the anti-Delhi sentiment that has traditionally outlined Bengal.”