Former Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away at his Palm Avenue residence in south Calcutta on Thursday morning. He was 80.

Bhattacharjee, the last Marxist chief minister, succeeded Jyoti Basu and was at the helm till May 2011, when the Trinamul came to power. Bhattacharjee breathed his last around 8.20 am.

Ailing for a long time with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, Bhattacharjee had abandoned public life for over five years because of his failing health.

It was Bhattacharjee’s push for speedy industrialization of the state that is counted as one of the reasons behind the ouster of the CPM after an uninterrupted rule of 34 years, under two chief ministers, Basu and Bhattacharjee. Bhattacharjee had got Tata Motors to build an automobile factory in Hooghly’s Singur soon after the Left Front returned to power for what turned out to be its last term. The anti-land acquisition movements in Singur and Nandigram led by Mamata Banerjee and a rainbow coalition brought an end to the LF rule.

Born into a family of priests (the poet Sukanta Bhattacharjee was a cousin of his father’s), Bhattacharjee studied Bengali literature from Presidency College and joined the CPM in 1966 and headed the party’s youth wing from 1968-1981.

In 1977, Bhattacharjee, by then a member of the CPM’s state committee, made his debut as a legislator from Cossipore Belgachhia and was made the minister of information and public relations. Bhattacharjee lost the Assembly polls in 1982 and then shifted to Jadavpur from where he was an MLA till 2011.

Forever clad in the Bengali traditional dhuti-panjabi, Bhattacharjee was more comfortable with the finer qualities of art and culture. Apart from being a poet, he was also a playwright and after his day’s work at the Writers’ Buildings and the party’s state headquarters at Alimuddin Street, Bhattacharjee would often spend the evenings at Nandan.

He had personally intervened when the screening of the Russian film “Taurus” had met with violent protests during the Kolkata International Film Festival.

Once as chief minister while inaugurating a statue of filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Bhattacharjee, an ardent admirer and frequent visitor to the Bishop Leffroy road flat of the filmmaker, had shared the following anecdote.

“I went to his flat one evening soon after the Left Front government had come to power. As was his custom, he opened the door and on seeing me said, ‘aapnara Monument (Shahid Minar) er matha ta o lal kore dilen. Chhi Chhi (You have painted the top of the Monument red. It’s a shame).”

Bhattacharjee recounted the white colour was restored.

Known for his clean image as pristine as the white dhuti-panjabi that he wore whether at state or party events, Bhattacharjee had withdrawn himself from public life because of his ill health. Over the last few years, he had to be hospitalized several times. The doctors had also advised him to move out of the small Palm Avenue flat where he lived for the last several decades, but Bhattacharjee stayed put.

“He was ailing for a long time but he continued to fight. The doctors were also trying his best,” said Mohammad Salim, CPM Bengal secretary. “His mortal remains will be kept at the state office tomorrow since many leaders are coming from Delhi and elsewhere.”

Bhattacharjee like many of the Marxist leaders including his predecessor and political mentor Jyoti Basu had donated his body for medical research. The state CPM leaders are trying to establish contact with the state health department for the formalities.

The last journey of the former chief minister and CPM’s tallest leader after Basu, would start from Alimuddin Street at 4 pm.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the CPM had released an AI generated speech of Bhattacharjee addressed to the voters of Bengal where he had urged the electorate to reject both the BJP and the Trinamul.

In 2022 the Narendra Modi government had anounced the Padma Bhushan to Bhattacharjee which he had refused.

A poet and translator, Bhattacharjee was an avid reader and regarded Gabriel Garcia Marquez as one of his favourites.