Kolkatta, January 17: Jyoti Basu (1914-2010) was an Indian politician belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from West Bengal, India. He served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000, making him India’s longest-serving Chief Minister as of 2009. He was a member of the CPI(M) Politburo from the time of the party’s founding in 1964 until 2008.
Jyoti Basu was born on 8 July 1914 as Jyoti Kiran Basu into an upper middle-class Bengali family in Calcutta. His father, Nishikanta Basu, was a doctor from the village of Bardi in Dhaka District, East Bengal, while his mother Hemalata Basu was a housewife.Basu’s schooling started at Loreto School at Dharmatala, Calcutta in 1920. It was there where his father shortened his name and he became Jyoti Basu. However he was moved to St. Xavier’s School in 1925. Basu completed his undergraduate education and received the honours in English from the Hindu College.
When the Communist Party of India split in 1964, Basu became one of the first nine members of the Politburo of the newly-formed Communist Party of India (Marxist).[2] In 1967 and 1969, Basu became Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal in the United Front governments.
In 1967,after the defeat of the Congress Government, Jyoti Basu was sworn-in as the Deputy Chief Minister under the Chief Ministership of Ajay Mukhopadhay. When Congress returned to power inWest Bengal in 1972 and Siddhartha Shankar Roy, Jyoti Basu was defeated from Baranagar Assembly Constituency and complained about unprecedented rigging. His Party CPI(M), decided to boycott the Assembly till the fresh election was conducted in 1977.
From June 21, 1977 to November 6, 2000, Basu served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the Left Front government. In 1996 Jyoti Basu seemed all set to be the consensus leader of the United Front for the post of Prime Minister of India.
However, the CPI(M) Politburo decided not to participate in the government, a decision that Jyoti Basu later termed a historic blunder. H.D. Deve Gowda from the Janata Dal instead became Prime Minister. Basu resigned from the Chief Ministership ofWest Bengal in 2000 for health reasons, and was succeeded by fellow CPI(M) politician Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. As of 2009, Basu holds the record for being the longest-serving Chief Minister in Indian political history.
On January 1, 2010, Basu was admitted to AMRI hospital,Salt Lake after feeling unwell. As of 16 January 2010, his health condition is ‘extremely’ critical and he is suffering from multiple organ failure.Latest by 17th,January,2010,he was put on all possible life support system. ‘The cardiovascular and the heamodynamic system,the lungs and the kidneys-all almost failing’ as said by the Doctors of AMRI. He died on 17th January 2010 at 11:47 AM IST.
MyNews pays its floral tributes to the departed leader.
–Agencies