Which is the more well-known address in Calcutta: 38/2 Elgin Road, or 30B Harish Chatterjee Street?

The occupant of the first home was Subhas Chandra Bose, while the Harish Chatterjee Street dwelling is the official address of Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

It was from the address on Elgin Road, while under house arrest by the then British administration in colonial India, that Bose had made his stories escape first to the then North West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan), crossed to Afghanistan in disguise and travelled to Moscow, Rome and finally Berlin seeking international allies for India’s struggle for Independence.

The other address, in Bhowanipore in south Kolkata, is where the incumbent chief minister cut her teeth into students’ politics, before being elected as a Member of Parliament in 1984 and then went on to overthrow the ruling CPM in 2011.

Since then, she has remained the undisputed political boss of Bengal.

Trinamul leader Kunal Ghosh on Sunday attempted to settle the debate over who is a bigger leader, Netaji or Mamata, in favour of his party leader.

Mamata’s electoral success, according to Ghosh, seals the deal in her favour.

Both the famous residents of south Kolkata were expelled from their parent party, the Congress.

In 1939, Bose was forced to resign after defeating Mahatma Gandhi’s nominee for the party’s presidential elections.

Fifty-eight years later, Mamata Banerjee was expelled from the Congress, for which the Rajya Sabha former member Pradip Bhattacharya issued a public apology on Sunday.

This prompted Ghosh to anoint his party chief as the tallest leader Bengal has ever produced.

Bhattacharya’s public apology came at an event to unveil the statue of the late Congress leader Somen Mitra, who headed the state unit when the All India Congress Committee decided to expel Mamata.

Bhattacharya claimed on Sunday that he had asked the now-deceased Mitra not to go ahead with the decision. It was a decision for which the Congress in Bengal, the former MP claimed, was still paying the price.

Electorally, the Congress, which had ruled over Bengal since Independence till 1977 with some brief interludes in the late ’60s, has no MLAs in the state Assembly and could win only one Lok Sabha seat in the last general elections.

“Netaji is an iconic figure, a freedom fighter, a national hero. He had formed the Azad Hind government which was recognised by six countries. Even if it was shortlived, the fact is recorded in history. There is no denying it,” Ghosh clarified in a video posted late on Sunday night in his X account.

“It is also a fact after he quit Congress he had formed the Forward Bloc, Pranab Mukherjee (the late President of India) had also formed a party but did not get any traction with the people. They remain icons but that doesn’t change the fact.

“Mamata di on the other hand is the only political leader in Bengal who has created a successful political party banking on her personal charisma and received the blessings of the people. She has been chief minister for three terms and will win a fourth term in the next Assembly polls. I have not said anything wrong. I am not bothered what others have to say about my comments,” Ghosh added.

While the veteran Congress leader Bhattacharya has claimed his statement was taken out of context, former Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “Mamata could not have become chief minister without the Congress in 2011. Since then she has actively poached elected leaders from our party.”

Members of the Bose family have been associated with the Forward Bloc, as well the Trinamul Congress and also the BJP. Two members of the family, Krishna Bose and Sugata Bose, were elected to the Lok Sabha on Trinamul tickets.

Chandra Kumar Bose, who like his grand-uncle Subhas had found it difficult to work in the party and quit the BJP in 2023, said the comparison was “unfair.”

“Before making such comparison, we should try to understand what Subhas Chandra Bose represented,” he said.