Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (1 March 1944 – 8 August 2024) was an Indian communist politician, statesman and a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who served as the 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. In a political career over five decades, he became one of the senior leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) during his regime.
Bhattacharjee described himself as a "communist compromising with capitalism" for promoting industrialisation in West Bengal, but his efforts were undermined by controversies. He was known for his relatively open policies regarding business, in contrast with the previous financial policies of the CPI(M), which were primarily anti-capitalist. However, he faced strong land acquisition protests and allegations about violence against the protesters. This led Bhattacharjee to lose the 2011 elections, resulting in the fall of Left Front's 34 years of rule in West Bengal.
Bhattacharjee was born in British Raj India on 1 March 1944 in Calcutta to a Bengali Brahmin family. His grandfather, Krishnachandra Smrititirtha was a Sanskrit scholar who had composed a priestly manual named Purohit Darpan, which remains popular with Bengali Hindu Bramins in West Bengal. Buddhadeb's father, Nepalchandra, did not enter into the priesthood and was involved with the family publication, Saraswat Library, devoted to selling Hindu religious material. Poet Sukanta Bhattacharya was Nepalchandra's cousin. A former student of Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya, Buddhadeb studied Bengali literature at the Presidency College, Kolkata, and secured his B.A. degree in Bengali (Honours). He then joined Adarsh Shankha Vidya Mandir school at Dum Dum as a teacher.
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.