Basudeb Acharia, veteran leader of the Communist Part of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) – and nine-time Lok Sabha member from West Bengal's Bankura constituency, died at the age of 81 on Monday, November 13. He died at a private hospital in Hyderabad where he was undergoing treatment for quite some time.
Acharia was first elected from Bankura in 1980 and continued winning from the constituency for nine consecutive terms until 2014. However, in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he was defeated by the Trinamool Congress candidate and actor-turned-politician Moon Moon Sen.
One of Basudeb’s daughters is currently abroad and is expected to reach Hyderabad by Tuesday, following which his final rituals will be conducted, said party insiders.
Born on July 11, 1942 at the Purulia district in West Bengal, Acharia had been associated with leftist politics since his student days.
Later, he moved on from student politics to trade union movements and had been the leading face of workers' movements in the Department of Railways. He had also worked as a school teacher and was a member of the CPI(M)-affiliated All Bengal Teachers’ Association.
He also played an active role in the education of tribal people in in his constituency Bankura, which has a large tribal population.
Basudeb was made a district committee member in Purulia in 1981 and later a state committee member, before he was elected to the CPI(M)’s central committee in 2005.
During the 2018 elections for the three-tier panchayat system in the state, he was allegedly attacked by the ruling Trinamool Congress activists while he was leading a procession of CPI(M) workers at Purulia. He was severely injured in the attack.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury paid his condolences to the bereaved family members. The party also released a statement, calling him a leader of the railway and coal workers.
(With inputs from IANS)