Fox Mandal’s Managing Partner, Som Mandal has recently entered the political arena, joining the Bhartiya Janta Party in November last year..Som, who is now 53, says that although he was never in active politics earlier, his firm has a history of supporting young politicians and contributing to Indian politics..In fact, it was a Fox Mandal Partner, Saila Kumar Mukherjee, who became the first Speaker of the West Bengal State Assembly in 1952. Subsequently, three of the firm’s associates from New Delhi were elected to the Parliament in 2009 from various political parties..On his decision to join BJP, he says,.“After Modi ji came to power, I felt that there was a need for change in West Bengal and I wanted to contribute to bring that change.”.The decision to join the BJP could also be influenced by the fact that Som’s father, Dinbandhu Mandal was an RSS member in the 1950s..Som Mandal says that he is now preparing himself for serving the people of West Bengal instituting “Friends of Bengal”, an organization to promote and encourage development in West Bengal..Som has also constituted the BJP Legal Cell in Kolkata, which will handle all the legal issues. He says,.“TMC in Bengal is constantly harassing and targeting BJP workers and police is mere spectator. The only resource is to fight them legally in court, so I will be handling all these cases.”.On asking if he plans to contest the next assembly elections in West Bengal on a BJP ticket, Som said that he is certainly not averse to the idea, “If the party asks me, I will definitely say yes”.
