Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, born in
Tamluk, West Bengal, India in 1901, was one of the leaders of
Tamralipta Jatiya Sarkar (Tamrlipta National Government), which came into effect on 17 December 1942 during the
Quit India Movement, a programme of civil disobedience launched in India in 1942. He was greatly influenced by
Swami Vivekananda. Earlier a member of the
Indian National Congress, he later founded the
Bangla Congress, which co-governed with the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) in two
United Front governments in 1967-1971. He held the chief ministerial position in both these governments, from March to November 1967, and again from February 1969 to March 1970. In the year 1967 Ajoy Mukherjee defeated
Prafulla Chandra Sen, another Gandhian, at Arambagh assembly constituency and became chief minister of West Bengal after Sen. Architect of Ajoy Mukherjee's victory at Arambagh was Narayan Ch Ghosh, the then students leader at Arambagh. Narayan Ghosh accompanied Ajoy Mukherjee in a boat for several days to see several flood affected areas in Arambagh & Ghatal subdivision in 1968. People of flood affected areas were enthused by Ajoy Mukherjee for his tireless move to stand for them. In 1971, Ajoy Mukherjee with some of his close colleagues, viz.
Pranab Mukherjee etc., joined
Indian National Congress (R) leaving
Sushil Dhara – his long term associate. He was offered ministerial post at Centre by Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi, but Ajoy Mukherjee declined, citing his age and health condition and recommended Pranab Mukherjee for the post, who became State Minister in the Indian Cabinet. He was awarded the
Padma Vibhushan award in 1977 from
Government of India. His brother
Biswanath Mukherjee & sister-in-law
Geeta Mukherjee were both members of the
Communist Party of India. Ajoy's niece Kalyani (daughter of another brother) was married to
Mohan Kumaramangalam and was the mother of
Rangarajan Kumaramangalam and
Lalitha Kumaramangalam. Mukherjee died on 27 May 1986 in Calcutta. ==References==