Senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Anil Biswas, who died on Sunday, will be remembered as an ideologue who successfully captained his party's transition in the state to adapt it to the post-liberalisation scenario.
Born on March 2, 1944, at Karimpur in Nadia district, Biswas graduated in political science from Krishnagar College. During his college days, he became a member of the Bengal Provincial Students' Federation and subsequently became editor of the BPSF organ Chhatra Sangram.
In 1965, Biswas enrolled for post-graduate studies at the Calcutta University and the next year, he joined the CPI(M)'s mouthpiece Ganashakti as a reporter. Biswas was elevated to the CPI(M) state committee in 1978, a year after the Left Front came to power in West Bengal.
Three years later, in 1981, Biswas became a member of the state secretariat and in 1985, was made a member of the central secretariat.
Notwithstanding his responsibilities in the party, Biswas never lost touch with journalism, contributing reports and articles for Ganashakti. In 1990, he became its editor.
Rising in ranks within the party bureaucracy, he became a member of the CPI(M) Politburo in 1998 and the following year, was elected the state secretary. A disciplinarian, Biswas earned admiration from partymen for his sense of responsibility towards colleagues. A former minister from the party, who fell into difficult days during old age, had recalled how Biswas had looked after him 'like a son.'
