Ex-Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee dies at 80; 'Shocked saddened', says Mamata

Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee died on Thursday (August 8) at his Kolkata home, CPI(M) state secretary Mohd Salim said.

He was suffering from old age-related ailments. Bhattacharjee was 80 and is survived by his wife Mira and daughter Suchetana.

The CPI(M) leader was the chief minister of the state from 2000 to 2011.

Shocked and saddened: Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee condoled the death of CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and said the state government will provide him with full respect and ceremonial honour during his last journey.

Banerjee said she was "shocked and saddened" by the demise of her predecessor.

"Shocked and saddened by the sudden demise of the former Chief Minister Sri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. I have known him for 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," Banerjee said on X.

She expressed condolences to members of the CPI(M) party and all his followers.

Pragmatic communist

Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.

The CPI(M) stalwart - a quintessential Bengali 'bhadralok' with an incorruptible image - will be ironically remembered also for the fall of the 34-year-old Left regime in the state in 2011.

He oversaw the end of an era in which he helmed the longest democratically-elected communist government but failed to lead the Left Front to victory for the eighth time in a row in the highly politically-polarised state.

Promoted industrialisation in WB

Bhattacharjee, who was the seventh chief minister of the state, pushed hard to shed his party's anti-industry image and promote industrialisation to breathe new life into Bengal's moribund economy.

He actively engaged himself in wooing investors and big capital to set up industries in the state with the primary goal of generating more employment opportunities for the youth.

Despite being a member of the party's powerful Politburo, he fearlessly denounced the politics of 'bandh' (strikes), a common Left parties' tool to register their protests on various issues.

TMC capitalised on anti-land acquisition protests

It garnered praise and criticism for him from both within and outside the party. His ambitious vision for rapid industrialisation, however, became the nemesis of both himself and CPI-M, as Mamata Banerjee's TMC deftly capitalised on the anti-land acquisition protests.

The Trinamool Congress was able to dethrone the mighty Left Front in 2011 and push the communists to the sidelines of the state's politics.

Family had scholarly background

Bhattacharjee was born in north Kolkata on March 1, 1944, to a family with a scholarly background. His grandfather Krishnachandra Smrititirtha was a Sanskrit scholar who authored a handbook for priests.

He was a distant nephew of the renowned Bengali poet Sukanta Bhattacharya, who played a significant role in modern Bengali poetry.

He himself was known to be a prolific writer and adept at quoting Rabindranath Tagore in various situations.

Led a spartan life

Bhattacharjee was known for leading a spartan life as he resided in his two-room government flat on Palm Avenue both during his tenure as chief minister and beyond.

After graduating from Presidency College in Bengali, he briefly worked as a teacher before fully committing himself to politics and joined the CPI(M) in the mid-1960s. He was spotted by Promode Dasgupta, who mentored him along with other party leaders from Bengal like Biman Bose, Anil Biswas, Subhas Chakraborty, and Shyamal Chakraborty.

He was elected to the Assembly for the first time in 1977 from the Cossipore constituency and became the information and culture minister in the first Left Front government at the age of 33 under Jyoti Basu.

Earned acclaim for promoting Bengali culture

Bhattacharjee earned acclaim for promoting Bengali culture, theatre, literature and quality films, while playing a crucial role in establishing 'Nandan' - the film and cultural centre in Kolkata. But he lost the polls in 1982.

It forced him to shift his constituency to Jadavpur in the southern part of the city and he returned to the state cabinet in 1987. He, however, resigned from the cabinet suddenly in 1993 after being allegedly rebuked for his rude behaviour with a bureaucrat.

It led him to withdraw from active politics and pen a play, 'Dushshamai' (Bad Times).

Successor to Jyoti Basu

The scene changed drastically when the CPI(M), searching for a successor to the aged Basu and facing strong anti-incumbency, reintegrated Bhattacharjee into the state cabinet initially as the state home minister.

Within three years, he assumed the role of deputy chief minister and eventually succeeded Basu as the chief minister in November 2000.

The following year he led the Left Front to victory in the state assembly polls and embarked on ambitious initiatives for rapid industrialisation in the agrarian state.

He set aside his ideological beliefs to attract investors and address the flight of capital from Bengal during the Left regime.

‘Brand Buddha’ - was against strikes and bandhs

Despite being a Politburo member, he pulled no punches in publicly denouncing CITU, the party's trade union wing, for calling strikes and bandhs. The step apparently was liked by the people as his popularity surged and the Left Front scripted a resounding victory in the 2006 assembly polls.

Bhattacharjee persistently pursued his efforts for the industrialisation of Bengal and earned the moniker of 'Brand Buddha' from the media to signify his government's developmental initiatives. His greatest feat was attracting Tata Motors to establish a small car plant at Singur, a fertile agricultural area not far from the city.

Farmers’ protest led to downfall of Left Front

However, it faced opposition from farmers, a key vote bank of the Left parties, and eventually became one of the key reasons for the downfall of the Marxist government.

His tenure also faced the brunt of the movement at Nandigram, where, under the leadership of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, the agitation against the acquisition of farmland for an SEZ led to a significant erosion in the Left Front's vote bank. The police fired on protestors on March 14 in 2007, which resulted in the death of 14 people and queered the pitch for the Marxists.

His failure to take any decisive action to end Banerjee's sit-in near the proposed small car plant at Singur too went against him and led to Tata's departure from the industry-starved state in January 2008.

(With inputs from agencies)