Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) leader and former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away in Kolkata on Thursday. He was 80.
Bhattacharjee, who lived in a small two-room government apartment in south Kolkata’s Ballygunge area, suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had been largely confined to his home over the last few years. He had been in and out of hospital in south Kolkata, where he was rushed to last year in critical condition before his condition improved. Bhattacharjee was admitted to the same hospital in May 2021 with a Covid-19 infection. He was released after seven days.
Bhattacharjee is survived by his wife, Mira, and daughter Suchetana. He died around 8:20 am after his condition deteriorated early morning. An avid reader, Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez was one of his favourites.
During the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the CPI(M) released an AI-generated speech of Bhattacharjee in which he urged the voters to reject both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
CPI(M) leader Md Salim said Bhattacharjee had donated his body and that his funeral will be held on Friday.
Bhattacharjee served as the chief minister for two consecutive terms from May 2001 before the debacle CPI(M)-led Left Front faced in the 2011 assembly polls. He took over from Jyoti Basu who was at the helm in the state from 1977. CPI(M) ruled West Bengal uninterruptedly from 1977-2011.
In 2022, Bhattacharjee declined to accept the third-highest civilian award Padma Bhushan after the Union government released the list of the awardees. He said he did not know anything about the award and that nobody said anything to him about it. Bhattacharjee’s predecessor, Jyoti Basu, also refused the Bharat Ratna award when the Manmohan Singh government reportedly proposed to confer the award on the communist leader. No CPI(M) leader has accepted civilian awards from the Union government.
{{/usCountry}}In 2022, Bhattacharjee declined to accept the third-highest civilian award Padma Bhushan after the Union government released the list of the awardees. He said he did not know anything about the award and that nobody said anything to him about it. Bhattacharjee’s predecessor, Jyoti Basu, also refused the Bharat Ratna award when the Manmohan Singh government reportedly proposed to confer the award on the communist leader. No CPI(M) leader has accepted civilian awards from the Union government.
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