Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, 78, is busy playing adviser to the current crop of young leaders of the DYFI, an organisation he had headed as a young man.

Physically stuck in his modest south Calcutta residence, Bhattacharjee, through family members, has been passing on suggestions to young comrades for the All-India conference of the DYFI, a three-day event from May 12.

Life has turned a full circle for Bhattacharjee, who was the founding secretary of the DYFI state committee in 1968.

The former CM is the chief adviser of the reception committee for the 11th all-India conference of the DYFI that will be held at Salt Lake.

“Buddhababu is our chief adviser. He can’t come to meet us nor can we go to meet him for his medical reasons. But he shared his suggestions with us through his family, especially daughter,” DYFI state president Dhrubajyoti Saha said.

Bhattacharjee mostly stressed on a bigger role for youths to win back people’s confidence in the Left Front that eroded in great measure in Bengal since the change of guard in 2011. He also lauded the Red Volunteers for helping people during the pandemic.

“Buddhababu has also penned a message wishing success for the conference, which we will release in a couple of days,” Saha added.

The source said as Bhattacharjee would not be able to read out the message because of his illness. Hence, efforts were on to get it recorded by a professional and circulate it on social media platforms.

In 1968, when the DYFI’s Bengal committee was set up for the first time, Bhattacharjee was elected as the secretary and Dinesh Majumdar the president.

After the DYFI proposed to make the former CM as chief advisor of the reception committee, CPM state secretary, Mohd Salim, met Bhattacharjee to discuss matters regarding the national conference, sources said.

Though Bhattacharjee is largely reclusive now, his message to think out of the box has come as an inspiration for the youth brigade. A DYFI leader said that for a large section of CPM's party's youth and student workers, Bhattacharjee remains the man to look up to, despite remaining outside the public space for years.

“He is the man who had dreams for the future. He had thought of doing something for us. He remains our icon,” a SFI leader said.

Bhattacharjee made his last public appearance in February 2019 when he travelled to the Brigade Parade grounds to participate at a Left Front rally. However, the crowd, heat and dust prevented the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient from stepping out of his car.

Ahead of a similar rally in 2021, the CPM shared a voice message from Bhattacharjee. In the past one-year, Bhattacharjee has contracted Covid-19 and on one occasion had to be hospitalised.

In keeping with Bhattacharjee’s suggestion to focus on innovation to attract youths, a DYFI leader said that events in the run up to the conference were trying to break away from stereotypes.

Apart from formal street corners, rallies, seminars and public meetings, the DYFI will host band festivals, mixed-gender football matches, film screenings, mangrove plantations and many others.

SFI state secretary Srijan Bhattacharya has penned lyrics for the theme song that will be launched soon.

“As a special tribute to the legendary Diego Maradona we have named the venue after him,” Saha said and added the reception committee was being presided over by actor Sabyasachi Chakraborty.