Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: A timeline
Bhattacharjee was a veteran CPI(M) leader, who served as the West Bengal CM from 2000 to 2011, succeeding Jyoti Basu
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and the former chief minister of West Bengal, passed away on Thursday at his home in Kolkata. He was 80 years old.
March 1, 1944: Bhattacharjee is born into a Bengali Brahmin family in north Kolkata. His grandfather, a Sanskrit scholar, wrote the manual for priests, which is still popular. His father published religious books.
Bhattacharjee studies Bengali literature at Presidency College and becomes a school teacher after graduation.
1966: Joins the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
1968: Elected West Bengal state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of CPI(M).
1972: Elected to the state committee of CPI(M).
1977: Elected MLA for the first time from north Kolkata’s Kashipur-Belgachhia constituency. Becomes minister of information and public relations in chief minister Jyoti Basu’s cabinet.
1982: Elected to the state secretariat of CPI(M) but loses the assembly election.
1984: Becomes member of CPI(M) central committee.
1987: Wins assembly election from Jadavpur seat in south Kolkata. Re-inducted into the state cabinet as minister of cultural affairs, urban development, and municipal affairs.
1993: Resigns from cabinet following differences with Basu over functioning of government. Returns to the cabinet a year later because of Basu’s initiative.
1996: Becomes minister of home affairs.
1999: Becomes deputy chief minister as Basu plans to retire.
2000: Becomes chief minister as Basu retires after a 23-year tenure.
2001: Bhattacharya’s government faces major controversy as 11 Trinamool Congress supporters are massacred, allegedly by CPI (M) cadres, at Chhota Angaria in West Midnapore. CBI takes up probe.
2002: Becomes a politburo member of the CPI (M).
2003: Gangrape of several women at Dhantala in Nadia district causes embarrassment for the government as CPI(M) cadres are arrested.
2006: Bengal Left Front wins 235 of 294 seats in state polls under Bhattacharjee’s leadership.
2006: Known for multi-crop farming, Singur in Hooghly district makes headlines as the government acquires 997.11 acres along NH-2 and hands it over to Tata Motors for building its cheapest car, the Nano. Bhattacharjee offers several incentives to the company while opposition leader Mamata Banerjee starts an agitation demanding the return of 347 acres acquired against the wishes of farmers.
2007: Bhattacharjee’s initiative to acquire farmland for a chemical hub at Nandigram in East Midnapore witnesses unprecedented political violence and a farmers’ movement led by TMC. The violence, which continued for more than two years, erupts after 14 villagers die in a police firing in September 2007. Bhattacharjee later withdraws the project.
2008: The Tatas scrap the Singur project and move the plant to Sanand in Gujarat.
2008: The Maoist movement in the western districts of Bengal intensifies. A convoy of cars carrying Bhattacharjee and Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada comes under landmine attack at Lalgarh. They escape unhurt, but six policemen are injured.
2011: Nine villagers are killed, allegedly by CPI (M) activists, at Netai village in Jhargram district in January. CBI starts an investigation.
2011: The TMC-Congress coalition ousts the Left Front government’s 34-year-old regime in a landmark election held in April-May. Bhattacharjee loses to Jadavpur.
2022: Bhattacharjee refuses the Padma Bhusan award after the BJP government releases the list of awardees. “I do not know anything about the Padma Bhusan award. Nobody said anything to me about this. If I have been given the award, I refuse it,” Bhattacharjee says in a statement.
2023: Bhattacharjee, a patient of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Doctors advise round-the-clock monitoring at home.