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It could be a whole new ballgame for Dr Amit Mitra. As the secretary-general of FICCI he has spearheaded the demands of industry and lobbied with the government to slash taxes and duties. But he may soon be looking at things from a different perspective – as a potential finance minister in a prospective Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led administration in West Bengal.
The articulate FICCI secretary-general is tipped to get a ticket in the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal. Indications are that he will be in a poll face-off against State Finance Minister, Dr Asim Dasgupta, an economics PhD from MIT and a student of Paul Samuelson.
Dr Mitra is likely to meet Trinamool Congress supremo Ms Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday to discuss his possible candidature, said TMC sources. And the likelihood of his getting the finance minister's job is high, they say.
Dr Mitra is no stranger to advising Ms Banerjee on matters of finance. As Chairman of the expert committee constituted by the Railway Minister, he advised the ministry on innovative financing and implementation of economically unviable but socially-desired projects.
If he moves into full time politics and becomes a minister, several companies could end up losing a board member. For when he's not at his office at the Ficci secretariat in Tansen Marg, Dr Mitra is discharging his responsibility as board member of Air India-National Aviation Company of India Ltd. (NACIL), or chairing the Committee set up by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to review the existing Television Rating Point (TRP) System in India.
Dr Mitra is also on the Board of IL&FS –CDI as well as the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC).
The question is does Dr Mitra have the vocal power to be in politics? His experience as a teacher – a job that requires good lungs – could come in handy here. Dr Mitra, who got his Masters in economics from Delhi School of Economics in 1970 and a doctorate degree in Economics from Duke University, US in 1978, has had over a decade long teaching stint in the US and received the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1990.
If he gets the ticket, the battle of the economists will be interesting to watch.
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