Former West Bengal Chief Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee breathed his last at his Kolkata home on August 8 after a prolonged illness. The CPI (M) leader was admitted to a private hospital in Alipore with multiple ailments on July 29, 2023. He was diagnosed with ‘Type 2’ respiratory failure and lower respiratory tract infection.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had also been suffering from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and other age-related ailments. The 80-year-old is survived by his wife Mira and daughter Suchetana.
He took oath as the chief minister of West Bengal in 2000 from party senior Jyoti Basu. He was the second and last CPM chief minister of the Left Front rule who held office for 11 consecutive years in Bengal. In the 2011 Assembly elections, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee lost to Banerjee’s TMC, ending the CPI(M)-led Left Front’s 34 years of rule in the state.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee took several initiatives during his tenure as Chief Minister to take the handloom industry of the state to an international level. He established the first cooperative herbal dyeing factory in the Phulia area of Shantipur under the Nadia district to bring in more investment and jobs for the weavers in the states. The then finance minister, Asim Dasgupta, was also present at the occasion.
Even today, the people of the district hail the former CM for the initiative. The dye factory built by the then-Left Front government helped several weavers become independent. However, with time, this factory has worn out and is now in ruins. Although the current Mamata Banerjee-led government worked on the infrastructural development of the factory, the problem was not solved.
The news of the demise of the former chief minister of West Bengal left a permanent void in the political world. Even the locals mourned the death of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, expressing that the CPI (M) leader will always remain in the minds of the people.
Comments
0 comment