Kolkata, Aug 8 (UNI): Veteran Marxist leader and former Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away at his south Kolkata flat on Thursday, family sources said. He was 80.
Bhattacharjee is survived by wife Meera Bhattacharjee and son Suchetan Bhattacharjee. He breathed his last around 8.20 am while fighting a bout of mild fever at his Palm Avenue flat in south Kolkata, a family source said.
The octogenarian Marxist leader was suffering for a long time owing to age-related ailments and breathing trouble. He had fought Covid-19 twice.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “Shocked and saddened by the sudden demise of the former Chief Minister Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.”
“I have known him for the last several decades and visited him a few times when he was ill and effectively confined to home in the last few years. My very sincere condolences to Meeradi and Suchetan at this hour of grief. I communicate my condolences to the members of the CPI(M) party and all his followers. We have already taken a decision that we shall give him full respect and ceremonial honour during his last journey and rites,” Banerjee said in her X handle post.
During the Left Front’s 34 years of rule in the state, Bhattacharjee was the second and last CPI(M) chief minister who was in office from 2000 to 2011.
BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari expressed his grief at the demise of the veteran Communist leader. “I am deeply saddened to learn that former West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has left for his heavenly abode. Condolences to his family members and admirers. I pray that his soul finds eternal peace. Om Shanti,” the Nandigram MLA said.
The veteran Marxist leader and a former Polit Bureau member of CPI(M), who had huge influence in the Leftist movement in Bengal was admitted to a private hospital several times before being shifted back to home in south Kolkata.
Bhattacharjee served as the 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. In a political career spanning over 5 decades, he became one of the senior leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
He was known for his relatively open policies regarding business, in contrast to the broadly anti-capitalist policies of CPI(M). But while trying to invite private investment during his tenure as CM, Bhattacharjee faced strong land acquisition protests and allegations of violence against the protesters.
This led to Bhattacharjee’s loss in the 2011 election, resulting in the end of Left Front’s 34 years of rule in West Bengal, the world’s longest democratically elected communist government.
Bhattacharjee was born on March 1, 1944 in North Kolkata to a Bengali Brahmin family. Famous poet Sukanta Bhattacharya was his father’s cousin.
A former student of Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya, Bhattacharjee studied Bengali literature at the Presidency College, Kolkata, and secured his B.A. degree in Bengali (Honors), and joined Adarsh Shankha Vidya Mandir school at Dum Dum as a teacher.
