Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee () (born 1 March 1944) is an Indian communist politician and a former member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He served as the 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. In a political career over 5 decades, he became one of the senior leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist) during his regime.
Bhattacharjee was known for his relatively open policies regarding business, as financial policies of CPI(M) was primarily anti-capitalist. But trying to do so, Bhattacharjee in his tenure as CM faced strong land acquisition protests and allegations about violence against the protesters. This lead Bhattacharjee to lose the election in 2011 resulting the fall of Left Front's 34 years of rule in West Bengal, the world's longest democratically elected communist government.
Early life
Bhattacharya was born on 1 March 1944 in North Kolkata to a Bengali Brahmin family. His grandfather Krishnachandra Smrititirtha was a Sanskrit scholar, priest & a prolific writer. He had composed a priestly manual named Purohit Darpan which remains popular with Bengali Hindu priests in West Bengal. Buddhadeb's father Nepalchandra didn't enter into priesthood & was involved with the family publication, Saraswat Library, devoted to selling Hindu religious material. Poet Sukanta Bhattacharya was his father's cousin. A former student of Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya, Bhattacharya had his ancestral house in Bangladesh. He studied Bengali literature at the Presidency College, Kolkata, and secured his B.A. degree in Bengali (Honors), and joined a government school as a teacher.
Personal life
He is married to Meera Bhattacharjee; they have a daughter named Suchetana Bhattacharjee. The family has lived in a two-room apartment in Ballygunge, Kolkata. He stayed at the two-room apartment for decades and operated as Chief Minister from the same residence. Bhattacharya is renowned for his frugal lifestyle. Although belonging to a family of priests, Bhattacharya is an avowed atheist, in accordance to the principles of communism.
Early political career
He joined the CPI(M) as a primary member in 1966. Besides taking active part in the food movement, he also supported Vietnam's cause in 1968. In 1968, he was elected 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 Pramod Dasgupta.
Political career
Bhattacharjee was elected to the state committee of CPI(M) in 1972 and was inducted in the state secretariat in 1982.
At first he was the MLA of Kashipur-Belgachia from 1977 to 1982. Bhattacharjee served as Minister in West Bengal Cabinet as Minister of Information and Public Relations between 1977 and 1982.
He lost the assembly elections in 1982 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 he became the MLA of Jadavpur in 1987 and continued to represent the constituency till 2011. He was re-inducted in the cabinet in 1987 minister of Information and Cultural Affairs. He also held other departments, such as urban development and tourism, on temporary basis.
He was included in the cabinet in 1991 as Information and Cultural Affairs minister, however, he abruptly resigned from his position in September 1993 following differences with the chief minister on the functioning of the administration and the alleged issue of corruption. He returned to the cabinet a few months later.
In 1996, after the 1996 West Bengal election Bhattacharjee was handed over the responsibility of home and police department, owing to the old health of Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. In 1999, he was made the Deputy Chief minister Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal of West Bengal.
On November 6, 2000, he was elevated to the position of Chief Minister after Basu stepped down. In 2002, he was elected to the politburo of CPI(M).
Chief Minister of West Bengal
Bhattacharjee was elected Chief Minister of West Bengal and was sworn in a solemn ceremony at Raj Bhawan. As Chief Minister, he lead the CPI(M)-led Left Front to two successive election victory in 2001 and 2006. In 2001, Left Front secured 199 out of 294 assembly seats and in 2006, it improved the tally to 235 out of 294 seats.
He started an industrialization drive in West Bengal to bring in more investment and jobs in the states. Under his government West Bengal saw investments in IT and services sector.