Buddha loses reform mate: Biswas is dead

West Bengal CPM secretary Anil Biswas lost his week-long battle for life at the Woodlands Nursing Home today.

West Bengal CPM secretary Anil Biswas lost his week-long battle for life at the Woodlands Nursing Home today. The end came at 5.25 pm. Biswas, 63, had been admitted there after a massive cerebral attack and had undergone surgery to remove clots in the brain.

He is survived by wife Gita and daughter Ajanta. A pall of gloom descended on the party headquarters on Alimuddin Street as senior party leaders, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhatttacharjee, former chief minister Jyoti Basu and Left Front chairman Biman Bose, headed for the nursing home. Hundreds of party supporters too assembled at the nursing home to mourn the death of Biswas, considered the chief strategist of the party.

Biswas always struck a fine balance between party hardliners led by Biman Bose and the reformists under Bhattacharjee.

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His body, which will be kept at the party office during the day tomorrow, will be later donated to the NRS Hospital.

Biswas’s exit comes at a critical time for the party, given the state elections. For now, the CPM has divided the campaign responsibility between Bhattacharjee and Bose.

But Biswas will be sorely missed. His death will unsettle to some extent the party battle strategy for the polls. All these years, Biswas meticulously planned and executed the party blueprints for the polls.

His loss is an equally big blow to Bhattacharjee. The most decisive and authoritative voice of support within the CPM for the CM’s reform agenda in governance is gone. It was Biswas who backed Bhattacharjee over the Salim project in North and South 24-Parganas.

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