Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee gave entire salary to party, had little savings, says close aide

Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's selfless dedication to his party and state left a lasting legacy.

Former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who passed away on Thursday (August 8, 2024), had little personal savings and gave all his salary earned as Chief Minister to his party, the CPI(M), the late leader’s close aide and party colleague Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said.

Mr. Bikash, the former Kolkata Mayor, was the election agent of Mr. Bhattacharjee when he contested from the Jadavpur Assembly seat from 1987 to 2011. He said the CPI(M) leader survived on a portion of his salary that the party gave him. “It is his wife Meera Bhattacharjee who was the main contributor to the family,” he told The Hindu.

Recalling the Singur agitation that was a turning point for the Left front government and politics in Bengal, Mr. Bikash said at the height of the protests against the Tata Motors small car factory, Mr. Bhattacharjee was advised by many to use police against the Opposition leaders protesting in Singur, but he was against it.

“I told Buddha da to leave it to the police, but he said that the Leader of Opposition [Mamata Banerjee] staging the demonstration was a responsible person. His gesture of goodness, however, was not reciprocated upon and Tata Motors were forced to leave Singur,” Mr. Bikash said.

The former Rajya Sabha MP said he had almost six decades of association with the former Chief Minister and said that the setback in Singur “broke his heart” and the State never recovered from the anti-industry image. Tata Motors moved its factory from Singur to Sanand in Gujarat in 2008, during the last term of the Left Front government.

While the Opposition parties have often accused Mr. Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister from 2000 to 2011, of forcible land acquisition, Mr. Bikash said when the Calcutta High Court directed eviction of squatters from a railway land in Kolkata’s Lake Garden area, the leader promptly allocated 10 acres of prime land designated for an IT park at Nonadanga for their rehabilitation.

Mr. Bhattacharjee shunned public limelight and always maintained a very low profile, recalled Mr. Bikash. “Once a monk of the Ramakrishna Mission was hospitalised and wanted to meet him. He declined saying that if he visits the hospital other patients will be inconvenienced,” he said. Even when he was not keeping well, he felt uncomfortable in availing VIP facilities at hospitals in the city.