The Marxist patriarch, who will be remembered both for his commitment to the communist ideology and a pragmatic approach to industrialising the state, died at the age of 80 at his residence here on Thursday.
His mortal remains were kept at the ‘Peace World’ mortuary on Thursday morning. Around 11 am on Friday, the body was brought from there to the State Legislative Assembly where state ministers, MLAs and MPs paid tribute. Bhattacharjee’s wife Meera, apart from CPI(M) leaders Biman Bose, Rabin Dev, Sujan Chakraborty and Srijan Bhattacharya, was also present.
Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee, deputy speaker Ashish Banerjee, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, state ministers Aroop Biswas, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Javed Ahmed Khan and Sovandeb Chattopadhyay paid floral tribute to Bhattacharjee.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari and several BJP MLAs also paid tribute to the former CM. Later in the day, Adhikari posted on X, “I paid my last respects and floral tributes to Former West Bengal Chief Minister; Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. He truly led an austere way of life and has set a precedent on how to maintain dignity & probity in public life. Though it’s difficult to put together words of consolation at such difficult moments, I tried to express my condolences to his wife Smt. Meera Bhattacharya.”
The body was later brought to Mujaffar Ahmed Bhawan, the state headquarters of the CPI(M) around noon. Thousands had already gathered there to pay their last respects.
CPIM politburo member Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Tapan Sen, Central Committee member Hannan Mollah, his former cabinet colleague Ashok Bhattacharya, Kiranmay Nanda, Kanti Ganguly and many others paid tribute at Alimuddin Street. TMC minister and MLA Babul Supriya, ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui also paid tribute to communist leader at CPIM state headquarter. Spouses of Bhattacharjee’s former colleagues, including Subhash Chakraborty’s Ramala, Gita Biswas, wife of former CPI(M) state secretary Anil Biswas and their daughter Ajanta Biswas were present at Mujaffar Ahmed Bhawan.
Theatre personalities such as Debshankar Halder, Chandan Sen, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, singer Usha Uthup, actor Debdut Ghosh, Shankar Chakraborty were also present. A delegation of East Bengal football club also paid tribute.
The mortal remains were kept at the portico of Mujaffar Ahmed Bhawan, draped in the party flag.
Mourners, young and old, some with teary eyes, stood hours after hours for see their leader. Several sang songs about communism while waiting to paying tribute to their leader. Many carried banners of Bhattacharya’s image.
Soumen Mukherjee, 86, said, “I am older than Buddha but he is taller than me in his wisdom and education. It is like he saw the future. That is why he called for industrialisation in the state but we failed to implement that. After hearing about his demise, I can only shed tears now.”
Nitai Bhattacharya, 82, resident of Gariahat said, “He saw the future. Buddha gave us the slogan “Krishi amader bhitti, Shilpo amader bhobishyot (Agriculture is our base and industry is our future). But his party failed to implement that. We lost a stalwart leader.” Around 3:30 pm, Buddhaden’s final journey started from Alimuddin street with 80 red flags in front and then his wife Meera Bhattacharya and other party leaders followed the rally with thousands of supporters.
The procession halted for a while at Dinesh Majumder Bhawan, the state office of DYFI (he was the first state DYFI secretary in 1968 and remained in the post till 1981). Afterwards, his body was donated to NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.
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