Former West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya passes away at 80

Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee died on Thursday at his Kolkata home, CPI(M) state secretary Mohd Salim told PTI.

He was suffering from age-related ailments.

The former chief minister, aged 80, is survived by his wife Mira and daughter Suchetana.

According to a party official, Bhattacharjee passed away around 8:30 am.

A veteran leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), Bhattacharjee assumed office as the chief minister of West Bengal in 2000, succeeding party stalwart Jyoti Basu.

In the 2011 assembly elections, Bhattacharya lost to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, marking the end of the Left Front's 34-year-long rule in the state.

During his tenure, protests erupted over land acquisition for industries, which were spearheaded by current Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

In 2015, Bhattacharya resigned from the CPI(M) politburo and central committee, and in 2018, he relinquished his membership in the party's state secretariat.

In recent years, he largely avoided public engagements and lived in his modest two-room government apartment on Palm Avenue in south Kolkata.

(With inputs from PTI)