Chittabrata Majumdar expires; CITU orphaned

Kolkata, Feb 20 (UNI) Veteran CPI(M) Polit Bureau leader, Rajya Sabha member and CITU All India secretary Chittabrata Majumdar died at a city nursing home today following a 20-day battle for life.

He was 71.

Mr Majumdar is survived by his wife and a daughter.

Nursing home sources here said he was suffering from lung infection.His end came at 1615 hours.

The Left leader was admitted to the nursing home on February 1 following an acute respiratory distress.

He was put on ventillatory support last Wednesday after his condition deteriorated.

Born in 1936 in Dhaka, Majumdar had his initiation in politics through students movement. He became a member of the undivided Communist Party in 1966 and turned a wholetimer in 1963.

As the party divided in 1964 on ideological ground, following the Indo-China clash, he joined the newly formed CPI(M) that came into existence.

While working in the party's labour front, Majumdar became a state secretariat member in 1986. His ascent in the organisation hierarchy was complete when he was elected the CITU General Secretary in 2003 and was inducted in the Polit Bureau, the highest decision making body of the CPI(M), in the Delhi Party Congress in 2005.

Thoroughly a man of organisation, seldom did Majumdar contest elections except in 1969 when he lost after being fielded by the party from Howrah.

He was a party nominee the second time in 1977 when the Left Front came to power. Having been elected to the Assembly, Majumdar became the minister in-charge of Small Scale and Cottage Industry and was in the office for five years. In 2004, he became a Rajya Sabha member.

Party sources said his body would be kept in the morgue 'peace haven' tonight before being brought to the party office tomorrow to enable the people pay respect to the departed leader.

According to his wishes, his body would be donated to the Nilratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital for medical study and research.

Left Front Chairman Biman Basu and other CPI(M) leaders, including ministers Nirupam Sen, Manab Mukherjee and Subhas Chakrabarty, visited the nursing home after his death.

UNI