Thursday, 08 August 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The former West Bengal chief minister and a CPI-M veteran Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away at his south Kolkata residence following protracted illness. He was 80 and is survived by his wife Mira and daughter Suchetana who had undergone gender change surgery. A senior CPI-M leader said he breathed his last at around 8.30 am. Notably, like his predecessor Jyoti Basu, he also pledged his body for medical research.
Condoling the ex -CM’s death, the chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that the State government would provide him with full respect and ceremonial honour during his last journey. “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,” she said on X.
The veteran CPI (M) leader took over as the chief minister in 2000 from party senior Jyoti Basu. Though he led the party to victory in two straight Assembly elections in 2000 and 2006 he lost to the 2011 Assembly election to Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and with it ended the CPI (M)-led Left Front’s 34-year-long rule in the State.
