Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

Political career

Initial career (1966–1971)

Bhattacharjee joined the CPI(M) as a primary member in 1966. Besides taking active part in the food movement, he also supported cause of Vietnam in 1968. In 1968, he was elected as the state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation, the youth wing of the CPI(M), that was later merged into the Democratic Youth Federation of India. He served in the position till 1981, when he was succeeded by Boren Basu. He was mentored by Promode Dasgupta.

Recognition, election as MLA and ministership (1972–2000)

Bhattacharjee was elected to the state committee of CPI(M) in 1972 and was inducted in the state secretariat in 1982.

From 1977 to 1982, he was elected as the MLA of Kashipur-Belgachia. Bhattacharjee served as the Minister of Information and Public Relations in the West Bengal Cabinet between 1977 and 1982.

In 1982, he lost the assembly elections from Cossipur constituency in 1982 by a slender margin. He was made a permanent invitee to the central committee of CPI(M) in 1984 and was made a member in 1985.

Later, in 1987, he became the MLA of Jadavpur and continued to represent the constituency till 2011. He was re-inducted in the cabinet in 1987 as the Minister of Information and Cultural Affairs. He also held departments of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs.

He was included in the cabinet in 1991 as a minister, with the portfolios of Information and Cultural Affairs and Urban Development and Municipal Affairs. However, he abruptly resigned from his position in September 1993, following differences with then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, regarding the functioning of the administration and the alleged issue of corruption. Notably, he remarked that Basu's cabinet was a "council of thieves". He returned to the cabinet a few months later.

Following the 1996 West Bengal election, Bhattacharjee was handed the responsibility of the home and police department, owing to the declining health of the elderly Chief Minister Basu. In 1999, he was made the Deputy Chief minister of West Bengal.

Chief Minister of West Bengal (2001–2011)

On 6 November 2000, he was elevated to the position of Chief Minister after the resignation of Basu. In 2002, he was elected to the politburo of CPI(M).

Bhattacharjee was elected Chief Minister of West Bengal and was sworn in in a solemn ceremony at Raj Bhawan. As Chief Minister, he led the CPI(M)-led Left Front to two successive election victories in 2001 and 2006. In 2001, the Left Front secured 199 out of 294 assembly seats and in 2006, it improved the tally to 235 out of 294 seats.

The tenure of Bhattacharjee saw major incidents of violence perpetrated by the cadres of the ruling CPI(M) like the Chhoto Angaria massacre, the Netai killings and the Dhantala case. There was also an escalation of Maoist attacks in the state, the most notable being the attack on a police camp at Silda, violence in Lalgarh and the Jnaneswari Express train derailment. Bhattacharya himself survived an assassination attempt by Maoists in 2008. Bhattacharya's government was also criticised for giving in to the demands of extremist elements among the Muslim society to expel the exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen out of the state in 2007.

Bhattacharjee started an industrialisation drive in West Bengal to bring in more investment and jobs in the states. Under his government, West Bengal saw investments in the IT and services sector. Bhattacharjee described himself as a "communist compromising with capitalism" for promoting industrialisation in the state, though his efforts did not succeed to the extent he had expected due to ensuing controversies.

Notable among the invited projects was that of the production of the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano, in Singur, a small town near Kolkata. Other notable proposals included the country's largest integrated steel plant in Salboni by the Jindal group. Another notable proposed project was a chemical hub at Nayachar, after it had faced resistance from farmers in Nandigram.

However, his plans were perceived negatively, and his party, along with its front partners, suffered heavy losses in the 2009 Indian general election. In the 2011 state assembly election, he was defeated at Jadavpur by the former Chief Secretary of his own government, and the Trinamool congress candidate Manish Gupta by 16,684 votes. He became the second West Bengal Chief Minister to lose an election from his own constituency, after Prafulla Chandra Sen in 1967. The Left Front saw a drubbing, securing just 62 seats out of 294. He resigned as Chief Minister on 13 May 2011.

Singur Tata Nano controversy and Nandigram violence

Events during his tenure as Chief Minister included attempts to industrialise West Bengal thwarted by the TATA's Tata Motors leaving Bengal in the face of the joint protests of the Trinamool Congress, Socialist Unity Centre of India, and Indian National Congress, the land acquisition dispute in Singur, the Nandigram incident, and the Netai incident.

In January 2006 the Supreme Court of India issued notices to Left Front Government ministers including Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and others in relation to land allotments made in the Salt Lake City township in Kolkata.

The Government of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee came under heavy criticism for police action against demonstrators in Nandigram in East Midnapore. He was criticised not only by opposition parties (such as the Trinamool Congress, INC, PDS, BJP, CPI(ML)L, CRLI and others) and other Left Front coalition allies like CPI, RSP and AIFB, who threatened to back out from the ministry on this issue, but also by his mentor and the former chief minister of the state, Jyoti Basu.

On 15 March 2007, Basu criticised Bhattacharjee for failing to restrain the police in Nandigram. Bhattacharjee expressed regret for the shootings, but claimed that he permitted police action because Nandigram was an "area where there had been no rule of law and no presence of an administration for not one, two or 10 days but for two-and-a-half months, and many hundreds of villagers left Nandigram, and took shelter in a state relief camp outside Nandigram." Actually Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declared that land in Nandigram would not be acquired by ordering the Nandigram notification to be torn apart. Still police were not allowed to enter Nandigram. Roads were dug up, preventing administration from entering the area.

The CPI(M) declared that they were totally behind Bhattacharjee and had drawn up "plans" to placate his critics in the Left Front. His government was also criticised by Left supporters for failing to protect the Left party workers (including his own party CPI(M)) who came under assault from political opponents - both right wing and ultra-left wing Maoists during the post-Nandigram turmoil until the end of 7th Left Front Government.

Electoral history

Bhattacharjee was elected as Member of Legislative Assembly from Cossipur (Vidhan Sabha constituency) once and from Jadavpur (Vidhan Sabha constituency) for five consecutive terms.

Later life

Despite his calls to be relieved of party responsibilities, Bhattacharjee was retained as a member of the Politburo and the Central Committee in the 20th party congress, organised at Kozhikode in 2012.

He was relieved of his posts on the Polit Bureau and Central Committee at the 21st party congress, organised at Vishakhapatnam in 2015. The party congress elected him as a special invitee to the Central Committee. However, he was persuaded to remain a member of the state committee and the state secretariat till 2018. In 2018, due to continuing ill-health he stepped down from the state committee and the state secretariat. He was later named as a special invitee to the state committee. In 2019, he made an attempt to attend a mega-rally at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata, however, due to breathing difficulties he could not appear on the stage and remained seated in his car.

Padma Bhushan rejection

In January 2022, the Government of India awarded Bhattacharjee with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India. However, he declined the award and claimed that he had not been informed about the award. He said a call was made to his residence earlier in the day, while adding there is no provision of taking consent for giving Padma awards.

Personal life

Bhattacharjee was married to Meera Bhattacharjee. Together, they had a child who underwent gender surgery and is now known as Suchetan Bhattacharjee. Bhattacharjee was renowned for his frugal lifestyle. He was also a scholar widely read and had acquaintance with literature of the world. Bhattacharjee was fond of dogs and had several pets during his lifetime, and was also seen feeding and petting the stray dogs in his locality quite often. He was an inveterate music lover and quite knowledgeable about Indian classical music. He also had a quiet and quite unexpected sense of humour. The family lived in a two-room apartment in Ballygunge, Kolkata. Bhattacharjee operated as Chief Minister from the same residence. Although belonging to a family of priests, Bhattacharjee was an avowed atheist, in accordance with the principles of communism.

Death

Bhattacharjee died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Kolkata, on 8 August 2024, at the age of 80.