Moloy Ghatak Age, Caste, Wife, Children, Family, Biography » StarsUnfolded

Some Lesser Known Facts About Moloy Ghatak

• Moloy Ghatak was born in Ukhra, a small town situated inside Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal.

• His father, Phani Bhushan Ghatak, was a lawyer. His four brothers also studied law and also became politicians.

• His home environment made him interested in law and politics from a young age.

• He first completed an undergraduate degree in political science from Ananda Chandra College in Jalpaiguri. He later received his LLB degree from the University of Calcutta in 1982.

• After completing his formal education, he also became an advocate at the Asansol court and became popular over time.

• He entered politics by joining the Congress party. He met Mamata Banerjee there and developed a close association with her.
  

  Moloy Ghatak with Mamata Banerjee

• When Mamata left Congress and launched the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 1998, Ghatak also joined as a member, becoming one of her very first and most trusted associates.

• He worked hard with Hareram Singh, V Sivadasan Dashu, and Narendranath Chakraborty to plant the TMC organisation firmly across Asansol and Paschim Bardhaman.

• Old-timers from the party still say that Ghatak knew every gully and neighbourhood of Asansol like his own backyard.

• He played a key role in establishing Trinamool’s presence in the Asansol and Kulti areas.

• In 2001, the voters of Hirapur gave him his first MLA win, but in 2006, he lost his re-election bid.

• During the long years of Left Front rule in Bengal, he tried the Lok Sabha route multiple times, but he never won.

• The 2011 Assembly elections brought a historic TMC sweep, ending decades of Left rule, and Ghatak contested from Asansol Uttar and won again in 2016 and 2021, making Asansol Uttar his safe stronghold.

• In November 2012, Mamata brought him into the state Cabinet with the Agriculture portfolio, and in July 2014, shifted his responsibilities to law and labour, two significant departments he then carried together for years.

• During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he fell into a public dispute with TMC colleague Dola Sen over the Asansol seat.

• After the BJP’s Babul Supriyo won that election, party circles accused Ghatak of campaigning half-heartedly for Sen, though the two eventually patched things up and moved forward.

• Moloy Ghatak’s elder brother, Ashim Ghatak, went missing in the Damodar River in West Bardhaman district on 19 September 2017.

• Police said he appeared to have been swept away while performing a religious ritual. Ashim was a senior advocate at the Asansol sub-divisional magistrate court.

• An officer from Hirapur police station confirmed the incident. Ashim went to the Damodar River to perform the tarpan ritual on the occasion of Mahalaya. Tarpan is a ritual in which Hindus pay homage to their ancestors.

• Senior police officers from the district reached the spot along with disaster management personnel. Rescue operations started shortly after. However, searchers could not locate Ashim Ghatak’s body till late evening.

• On 28 May 2019, neighbours noticed a foul smell coming from a house in the Hindustan Park area of Asansol. They complained to the police about the smell.

• Police entered the house and found two decomposed bodies inside. The bodies were identified as Jayshree Ghatak and her daughter Nilam Ghatak.

• Jayshree Ghatak was the wife of West Bengal Minister Moloy Ghatak’s late elder brother. Neighbours said the two women rarely interacted with people around them.

• After the TMC’s third straight victory in 2021, Mamata also handed him the PWD charge, but within a year, took PWD away from him while keeping him on law and labour.
  

  Moloy Ghatak at his office

• In 2022, when Babul Supriyo vacated the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, Ghatak ran the TMC’s bypoll campaign.

• He managed Shatrughan Sinha‘s campaign so effectively that Sinha beat the BJP’s Agnimitra Paul by over three lakh votes, a result that earned Ghatak wide credit across the party.

• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials searched Ghatak’s residence in Apkar Garden, Asansol, on 7 September 2022.

• They also searched three houses in the Chelidanga area. Minister Ghatak’s wife, Sudeshna Ghatak, was present at the Apkar Garden house during the search.

• Sudeshna said she did not speak to her husband at any point during the search.

• Her sister Sona Gupta came to the Apkar Garden house while the search continued. Sona Gupta serves as a councillor of Ward Number 81 of Asansol Municipal Corporation.

• The CBI officials stopped her from entering the house, but they did not respond to her claims.

• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also summoned him later in the same matter, though Ghatak denied any involvement.

• In October 2024, he was appointed as the state-in-charge of the party in Assam.
  

  Moloy Ghatak during a campaign

• On 22 January 2025, a youth named Vicky Keora vandalised Ghatak’s office room at his Apcar Garden residence in Asansol.

• Four police constables were deployed as house guards at the minister’s residence at the time of the incident.

• Police interrogated Vicky Keora but did not get any clear answers about his motive.

• Vicky’s family members told police that he is mentally challenged.

• Ahead of the West Bengal Bar Council elections held in March 2026, complaints landed on Mamata’s desk that Ghatak quietly supported the opposition lawyers’ panel instead of backing the TMC group.

• Mamata already carried frustration towards him over his weak handling of state government cases running in the Supreme Court, with tea garden trade union leaders also submitting complaints about his poor management of labour issues.

• The day after the Bar Council vote, Mamata stripped him of the law ministry, a portfolio he held for over a decade and also from the district president position.