Nearly three years ago, when West Bengal witnessed a spate of suicides over the multi-crore Saradha scam, a Congress leader from the Hooghly district approached the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the scam.
In his late fifties, Abdul Mannan, who was not a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly then, showed a commitment to ensure justice to those duped in the scam.
Mr Mannan, along with Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and also a prominent lawyer Bikash Bhattacharya, got a Supreme Court order in May 2014 directing for a probe by the Central agency.
While the Congress was struggling to put its flock together, with over a dozen of its legislators switching sides and joining the Trinamool Congress, Mr Mannan was rallying the Opposition forces against the ruling Trinamool Congress.
He became one of the prominent leaders of the Chit Fund Sufferers Unity Forum that emerged as a platform for organising protests against higher ups in the ruling party alleged in the scam.
Towards the end of the TMC government’s first term, Mr Mannan was also instrumental in setting up the ‘Save Democracy Forum’, which brought together the likes of Justice (Retd.) Asok Kumar Ganguly on the issue of human rights violation in the State by the ruling TMC government.
A retired school teacher, Mr Mannan (now 61) had represented Champdani Assembly segment in the Hooghly district for three terms from 1991 to 2001. This was the height of the Left Front regime and despite attempts by party leaders to defeat him Mr Mannan stood his ground.
Now being elected the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) decks have been cleared for him for Leader of Opposition post. The Left Front, spearheaded by the CPI(M), got only 32 seats while the Congress contesting on far less seats got 44 in the recently-concluded polls.
The Congress will have post of Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly after 20 years. The previous occasion when the Congress was the principal Opposition party was in 1996 and Mr Mannan had then served as its chief whip.
One aspect that is clear with Mr Mannan elevation is that the Left Font-Congress bonhomie which he had forged on specific issues will continue in future.
“The reason we fought together, it is still there. We wanted to free Bengal from misrule. But that has not happened. So our fight is on. We will fight unitedly in the House and outside,” he said when asked whether the alliance will continue.
