Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

In 2022, he stepped down from all leadership roles, just retaining his primary membership of the party. However, Bhattacharjee remains a senior leader of CPI(M).

In January 2022, the Central Government of India bestowed Bhattacharjee with the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India. However, he declined the award and claimed that he had not been informed about the award. He said a call was made to his residence earlier in the day, while adding there is no provision of taking consent for giving Padma awards.

In 2018, due to continuing ill-health he stepped down from the state committee and the state secretariat. He was later named as a special invitee to the state committee. In 2019, he made a attempt to attend a mega-rally at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata, however, due to breathing difficulties he could not appear on the stage and remained seated in his car.

He continued to appear for party campaign and programs till 2017.

He was relieved of his posts on the Politburo and Central Committee at the 21st party congress, organised at Vishakhapatnam in 2015. The party congress elected him as a special invitee to the Central Committee. However, he was persuaded to remain a member of the state committee and the state secretariat till 2018.

Despite his calls to be relieved of party responsibilities, Bhattacharjee was retained as a member of the politburo and the central committee in the 20th party congress, organised at Kozhikode in 2012.

He is the second West Bengal Chief Minister to lose an election from his own constituency, after Prafulla Chandra Sen in 1967.The Left Front saw a drubbing, securing just 62 seats out of 294. He resigned as Chief Minister on May 13, 2011.

However, his plans backfired, and his party, along with its front partners, suffered heavy losses in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. In the 2011 state assembly election he was defeated by former Chief Secretary of his own government, and the Trinamool congress candidate Manish Gupta by 16,684 votes.

On March 15, 2007 Basu criticized Bhattacharjee for failing to restrain the police in Nandigram. Bhattacharjee expressed regret for the shootings, but claimed that he permitted police action because Nandigram was an "area where there had been no rule of law and no presence of an administration for not one, two or 10 days but for two-and-a-half months, and many hundreds of villagers left Nandigram, and took shelter in a state relief camp outside Nandigram." Actually Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declared that land in Nandigram won't be acquired by ordering the Nandigram notification to be torn apart. Still police were not allowed to enter Nandigram. Roads were dug up, preventing administration from entering the area.

In January 2006 the Supreme Court of India issued notices to Left Front Government ministers including Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and others in relation to land allotments made in the Salt Lake City township in Kolkata.

As Chief Minister, he lead the CPI(M)-led Left Front Left Front (West Bengal) to two successive election victory in 2001 and 2006. In 2001, Left Front secured 199 out of 294 assembly seats and in 2006, it improved the tally to 235 out of 294 seats.

On November 6, 2000, he was elevated to the position of Chief Minister after Basu stepped down. In 2002, he was elected to the politburo of CPI(M).

In 1996, after the 1996 West Bengal election Bhattacharjee was handed over the responsibility of home and police department, owing to the old health of Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. In 1999, he was made the Deputy Chief minister Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal of West Bengal.

He was included in the cabinet in 1991 as Information and Cultural Affairs minister, however, he abruptly resigned from his position in September 1993 following differences with the chief minister on the functioning of the administration and the alleged issue of corruption. He returned to the cabinet a few months later.

Later he became the MLA of Jadavpur in 1987 and continued to represent the constituency till 2011. He was re-inducted in the cabinet in 1987 minister of Information and Cultural Affairs. He also held other departments, such as urban development and tourism, on temporary basis.

He lost the assembly elections in 1982 from Cossipur constituency in 1982 by a slender margin. He was made a permanent invitee to the central committee of CPI(M) in 1984 and was made a member in 1985.

At first he was the MLA of Kashipur-Belgachia from 1977 to 1982. Bhattacharjee served as Minister in West Bengal Cabinet as Minister of Information and Public Relations between 1977 and 1982.

Bhattacharjee was elected to the state committee of CPI(M) in 1972 and was inducted in the state secretariat in 1982.

He joined the CPI(M) as a primary member in 1966. Besides taking active part in the food movement, he also supported Vietnam's cause in 1968. In 1968, he was elected state secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation, the youth wing of the CPI(M) that was later merged into the Democratic Youth Federation of India. He served in the position till 1981, when he was succeeded by Boren Basu. He was mentored by Pramod Dasgupta.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also known as Buddha Babu (born 1 March 1944) is an Indian Communist politician and a former member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He served as the 7th Chief Minister of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011. He is a senior leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist), having served as a member of the politburo between 2002 and 2015. Bhattacharjee is known for leading a spartan and honest livelihood.

Born in 1944 in north Calcutta, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee belongs to a family which had produced another famous son. Revolutionary poet Sukanta Bhattacharya was his father's cousin. A former student of Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya, Bhattacharjee had his ancestral house in Bangladesh. He studied Bengali literature at the Presidency College, Kolkata, and secured his B.A. degree in Bengali (Honors), and joined a government school as a teacher.