Chandan Mitra

Chandan Mitra (Bengali: চন্দন মিত্র) (born 12 December 1955) is an Indian journalist, presently editor and managing director of The Pioneer newspaper in Delhi. He was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha during August 2003 to August 2009. He was elected to another term in the Rajya Sabha, as a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Madhya Pradesh, in June 2010. He joined All India Trinamool Congress in 2018.[1]

Chandan Mitra
Editor-in-Chief, The Pioneer
Assumed office
2013
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office
30 June 2010 – 29 June 2016
ConstituencyMadhya Pradesh
In office
27 August 2003 – 26 August 2009
ConstituencyNominated
Personal details
Born (1954-12-12) 12 December 1954
Howrah, West Bengal
Political partyAll India Trinamool Congress (2018-present)
Other political
affiliations		Bharatiya Janata Party (2010-2018)
Spouse(s)Shobori Ganguli
ChildrenTwo sons
FatherMonindra Nath Mitra
ResidenceSainik Farms, New Delhi
Alma materDelhi University (BA, MA)
Oxford University (DPhil)
ProfessionJournalist/Writer

Personal life

Mitra was educated at La Martiniere Calcutta, where he was awarded the Founder's Gold Medal in 1971. He was a batchmate of Swapan Dasgupta and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta at La Martiniere, and all three went up to St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, together. At St. Stephen's, Mitra and Shashi Tharoor were to become great friends and Mitra even became campaign manager for Tharoor's successful campaign to become President of the college's student union.[2] Mitra received an MA and M.Phil in History at Delhi University as well. He taught for a short while at Hansraj College.

In 1984, he was awarded a doctorate degree at Oxford University, where he was a member of Magdalen College, for the thesis "Political mobilisation and the nationalism movement in India – a study of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, 1936-1942" written under supervision of the noted Indian historian Tapan Raychaudhuri. Mitra is married to Shobori Ganguly.

Career

Mitra started in journalism as Assistant Editor with The Statesman in Kolkata before he moved to the Times of India in Delhi and then The Sunday Observer; he went on to become Editor of the paper, and later moved to the Hindustan Times as Executive Editor. Mitra left to join The Pioneer as Editor, and eventually bought control of the newspaper from the Thapar family in 1998 NOTABLE COLUMNISTS[3]

In July 2013 he made a controversial remark at the renowned economist Amartya Sen,[4] but soon regretted it.[5] He contested the 2014 General Elections on a BJP ticket from Hooghly constituency. He stood third and had to forfeit his deposit.[6]

References
  1. "BJP now 'government-in-waiting' In Bengal, says TMC's Chandan Mitra". Moneycontrol. 27 May 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2020. Chandan Mitra, a former BJP cadre, who joined TMC last year, admitted that he was taken aback by the saffron party's spectacular performance
  2. "A Confessional Tale of Elusive Elections". Retrieved 23 February 2011.
  3. Editor steps in to save The Pioneer Archived 16 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Times Of India, 12 May 1998. Retrieved 2011-05-25.
  4. "Strip Amartya Sen of Bharat Ratna, says Chandan Mitra". The Hindu. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  5. PTI (26 July 2013). "Chandan Mitra regrets remarks against Amartya Sen". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  6. Mitra Former BJP Lawmaker Joins Trinamool At Mega Kolkata Rallylast=NDTV "Chandan Mitra, Former BJP Lawmaker, Joins Trinamool at Mega Kolkata Rally" Check |url= value (help). NDTV. 21 July 2018.
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