Kolkata: Former Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away on Thursday morning in Kolkata. He was 80. He is survived by his wife Mira and daughter Suchetana.
He was suffering from old age-related ailments and breathed his last at 8.20 am at his Palm Avenue residence. He had abandoned public life for over five years because of his failing health.
Bhattacharjee was the second and the last CPI(M) chief minister of West Bengal. He succeeded Jyoti Basu and was in office for 11 straight years from 2000-2011. He is known for having invited Tata Nano to set up the world’s cheapest car project in Singur, a small hamlet near Kolkata. His push for speedy industrialization of the state is attributed as one of the reasons behind the ouster of the CPM after an uninterrupted 34-year rule amid anti-land acquisition movements in Singur and Nandigram, which saw Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief win election and take the seat of governance.
After losing the the 2011 assembly election, Bhattacharjee stepped down from the CPI(M) politburo and central committee in 2015 and gave up membership of the party’s state secretariat in 2018.