Veteran CPI-M leader Shyamal Chakraborty succumbs to COVID-19

Veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Shyamal Chakraborty, who was diagnosed with COVID-19, died at a hospital in Kolkata on Thursday, his party said. He was 76.

Chakraborty, an ardent trade unionist and a former Rajya Sabha member, was admitted to the hospital after he tested positive for COVID-19 on July 30.

"He was not doing well and was on ventilation. He passed away this afternoon," a senior party leader said.

Chakraborty had pneumonia and suffered two major heart attacks.

Though he survived the first one, he succumbed after the second attack, a spokesperson of the hospital said in a press conference.

He is survived by daughter Ushasi Chakraborty, an actor.

Chakraborty, the three-time transport minister of West Bengal from 1982 to 1996 in the Jyoti Basu government, was a member of the CPI-M's central committee.

He was a Rajya Sabha MP from 2008 to 2014, and an MLA from 1981 to 1996.

Chakraborty was one of the longest serving presidents of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions' (CITU's) West Bengal unit, from 2003 to 2017.

Baptised in politics in the early '60s, his organisational and oratory skills were first spotted by Communist stalwart Promode Dasgupta.

Dasgupta groomed Chakraborty along with Biman Bose, Anil Biswas, Subhas Chakraborty and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as the next generation leaders of the party.

'Today the working class and the left movement in the country has lost an important voice,' the CPI-M said in a tweet.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said his death has left a deep void in Bengal politics.

"Saddened at the passing away of veteran leader, former Member of Parliament and former Bengal minister Shyamal Chakraborty. My condolences to his family, friends and supporters," she said.

CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra and its Legislature Party Leader Sujan Chakraborty condoled the death.

"It is a great loss to the trade union movement. He was a mass leader and was respected across the political spectrum," Chakraborty said.

State Bharatiya Janata Party president Dilip Ghosh also offered his condolences.

Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Chakraborty was a compassionate leader of the working class.

"He was a gentleman, and polite in nature. Condolences to his family members," he said.

Chakraborty is the second notable politician from the state to die after testing positive for COVID-19.

Trinamool Congress MLA Tamonash Ghosh died in June.

On Wednesday, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation councillor Subhash Bose also died of COVID-19.