Love's labour lost for Bengal Minister after 15 years

Kolkata, May 12 (UNI) Mohammad Amin, who served the ruling Left Fornt in West Bengal for three consecutive terms as Labour Minister, spent his last day in office today after losing in the just concluded Assembly election.

Md Amin, a diehard trade union leader, who contested from his old constituency Garden Reach on the southern outskits of the city and lost to Abdul Khaleque Mollah of the Congress by 8,874 votes in a four-cornered contest, was one of the three Ministers, who met their electoral waterloo.

Speaking to newspersons at his chamber at the state Secretariat - Writers' Buildings - on the last day of the sixth Left Front Ministry, the term of which is due to expire tomorrow, the outgoing Labour Minister reminisced several ups and downs in the decision making processes during his tenure of one and a half decades.

'' I shall be telling a lie if I say I do not feel sad in quitting the responsibility which I shouldered for so long. But at the same time I also feel some sort of relief as from now on I shall be able to concentrate fully on the party's organisational matters, '' Md Amin said referring to his future plans.

Asked whether he was also planning to pen down his long experience of effectively dealing with both the CITU and INTUC-dominated labour force on one side and ''adamant'' management representatives on the other to arrive at any consensus and to solve any long and difficult labour disputes, the outgoing Minister replied in positive.

'' I have already written a number of books on the issue and will continue to do so in the coming days till I remain fully fit both mentally and physically, '' Md Amin added.

He said he had already taken the ''unexpected'' defeat in his stride and was trying to find the reasons of his labour lost. '' But I do not blame the electorate of my constituency for for not returning me to the state Assembly for the fourth consecutive time and allow me to serve them for five more years. There must be some resons for that, '' he said alomost in a murmuring voice.

After spending about an hour in his ''favourite'' chamber, Md Amin finally left the Secretariat after shaking hands and exchanging greetings with all his staff members, some of whom were literally in tears to bid him adieu.

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