Born in 1944, Buddhadeb was the nephew of the legendary communist poet Sukanta Bhattacharya. He was brought up in the leftist family environment and from his school days, he took active interest in politics and cultural activities. During his Presidency College years from 1961 to 1964 and later in Calcutta University, he emerged as a fiery student leader and drew attention of the state CPI(M) leadership. The united CPI was officially split in 1964 and the years following were marked by bitter fighting between the pro-CPI and pro-CPI(M) among the students and youth movement for taking control of the student unions and the youth bodies. Buddhadeb played an important role in the late 1960s and seventies in keeping the CPI(M) flag flying among the students and youth defying the attacks by the aggressive supporters of the CPI(ML) owing allegiance to Charu Mazumdar faction.

In 1977 after the installation of the Left Front Government under Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, Buddhadeb, was made the minister for information and public relations of the CPI(M) led Left Front Government. He served this position for long but in 1999, when Jyoti Basu was planning to retire, Buddhadeb was made the Deputy Chief Minister. He was finally made Chief Minister in November 2000 after Basu gave up chief ministership at the age of 86.

Since then, the ruling Left Front won two assembly elections in 2001 and 2006 under the chief ministership of Buddhadeb but the signs were there that the CPI(M) was becoming unpopular to every section of the people including those who generally are known as firm supporters of the CPI(M). The CPI(M) leaderships at the state and district level were ambivalent to the gross corruption of their members. This process started from the late 1990s and got stepped up during Buddhadeb’s reign. After winning 2006 assembly polls with Let Front getting 235 seats, Buddhadeb as a chief minister became a bit arrogant. He commented about the opposition in a derogatory way. ‘We have 235 and they 30 ‘- he used to say about Trinamool Congress. Then within a year, political scenario changed dramatically with Singur and Nandigram. Developments.

The policy of quick industrialization of capital starved Bengal by setting up project in Nandigram and car project of Tatas in Singur was conceived in a haste by Buddhadeb without proper assessment of its impact on the highly fertile agricultural land in that area. The district party leaders of the CPI(M) gave a wrong assessment to the Chief Minister about the response of the farmers and the local people. Finally, the arrogance of the CPI(M) leadership led to the alienation of a large section of farmers. This facilitated the entry of Trinamool Congress in the agitation which took massive proportions after the wrong tackling of the movement by the administration and the local CPI(M) cadres. The ghastly killings by the police and the local CPI(M) cadres sullied the image of the chief minister totally. His well wishers were amazed at how he relied fully on the assessments given by the industrialists rather than giving credence to the observations of the experts friendly to the Left Front.. The Singur-Nandigram developments played a major role in alienating a vast section of the intellectuals and cultural activists oh Bengal from the Left. Suddenly, there was a big erosion in the CPI(M)’s support base.

Its immediate impact was felt in the panchayat elections in 2008 and then in Lok Sabha polls in 2009. The results could have served as a warning for 2011 assembly elections. But no course correction was made, the political situation was allowed to flow its own course without any intervention from the CM Buddhadeb in terms of governance. It was a free fall between 2008 to 2011 till the assembly elections. Finally, the Trinamool Congress swept the assembly polls in alliance with the Congress ending the near 34 year old uninterrupted rule of the Left Front government led by the CPI(M).

Certainly Buddhadeb’s Singur-Nandigram policy and the police atrocities contributed to the disastrous defeat of the CPI(M) in 2011 assembly polls, but things could not have been that bad if the CPI(M) would not have withdrawn from the Manmohan Singh Government on nuclear deal issue in 2008 leading to the Trinamool- Congress alliance in 2011 assembly polls. The ground situation for the Left was bad before 2011assembly elections, but the Congress gave a big mojo to Trinamool through its alliance which could have been avoided by the Left through more prudent tactics..

For Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the 2011 defeat of the Left Front including his own at the traditional constituency of Jadavpur at the hands of his erstwhile chief secretary Manish Gupta was a terrible shock. He could not come out of this in the following years.. For the last five years, he has been ailing and staying at his home only. But still, he remains a big inspiration to the students and youth of the CPI(M). Even this year before the Lok Sabha polls, his message was read out at the Brigade rally of the youth wing. He is a model to many as an incorruptible communist leader.

Buddhadeb was out and out a man of culture. Most of the big poets like Shakti Chatterjee and Sunil Ganguly were close to him. He used to bring out a little magazine in his younger days. He also wrote a play and translated a number of Latin American works. Even in his chief ministership period, he used to spend lot of hours in Nandan, the cultural hub of Kolkata discussing the latest cultural scene with the contemporary figures. He was a big fan of Latin American cinema. He was a typical Bengali educated bhadralok with little interest in 24x7 job of a big politician. He is a tragic hero of the Left movement in Bengal? He was a dreamer looking for a rejuvenated Bengal but he failed in opting for the right path. The Bengal CPI(M) is now left with no icon. (IPA Service)