Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was on Saturday afternoon admitted to a city-based hospital after he complained of breathing complications, officials said.

Bhattacharya (79) was immediately put on mechanical ventilator support at the critical care unit of the private hospital where he was rushed from his Palm Avenue residence via a green corridor.

Bhattacharya, who was the chief minister from 2000 to 2011, has been suffering from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and other old age-related ailments for quite some time.

"His condition is critical. We are examining him. His oxygen saturation deteriorated to 70 per cent in the afternoon and he became unconscious, following which he was rushed to the hospital," the official told PTI.

A team of senior doctors, including a cardiologist and a pulmonologist, was constituted to monitor his health.

Both his wife Mira Bhattacharya and daughter Suchetana Bhattacharya both are in the hospital.

Bhattacharya has been away from public life for the past few years due to his health.

He had stepped down from the CPI(M)'s politburo and the central committee in 2015 and gave up membership of the state secretariat in 2018.

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