Jyoti Basu

Jyoti Basu Biography

Jyoti Basu was an Indian politician and served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was the longest serving Chief Minister of any Indian state. He belongs to the Marxist Communist Party of India and a member of the Politburo of the party from 1964 to 2008.

He was born on 8^th July 1914 in Kolkata in an upper middle class family and his birth name was Jyotirindra Basu. His parents are Nishikanta Basu and Hemalata Basu. His father was a doctor. He studied at Loreto School at Dharmala in Kolkata and at St. Xavier’s School. After completing his studies, he got honors degree in English from the Presidency College of University of Calcutta.

He went to England to study law in 1935. He was inspired by the policies of Communism when he was in England. He completed his studies in 1940 and returned back to India. He was involved in trade union activities and worked among the railway laborers. His friend Bhupesh Gupta introduced him to communist party. He was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1946 and served as the leader of the opposition for a very long time. When there was a split in the communist party in 1964, Basu became one of the nine members of the Politburo of the newly formed Marxist Communist Party of India.

He became the Chief Minister of the Left Front government in 1977. He served as the Chief Minister continuously for 23 years. He instituted Panchayat Raj System. Due to his health reasons, he resigned from the post of Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2000 and he was succeeded by Buddhadev Bhattacharya. He was the role model for all communists. He spent three and half years in jail during his political career of seven decades. He was criticized for involving in the Bijon Setu Killings in 1982.

He was suffering from pneumonia and died on 1^st January 2010. The Rajarhat New Town in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal was renamed as Jyoti Basu Nagar on 7^th October 2010 in his honor. 

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Updated: June 13, 2018