Veteran Forward Bloc leader Kamal Guha dead

Cooch Behar, Aug 6 (UNI) Veteran Forward Bloc leader and former agriculture minister Kamal Guha died here today at a private nursing home after a prolonged illness.

He was 80.

Mr Guha is survived by two daughters and son Udayan Guha, a state secretariat member of the Forward Bloc.

A cabinet minister of the first Left Front Government in 1977, Guha was admitted to the nursing home on July 24 for various ailments, including breathing problem.

His health condition deteriorated last evening and he breathed his last at 1720 hours, said Dr Subash Chandra Saha, Guha's personal physician.

Elected first to the West Bengal Assembly in 1962 from Dinhata, his birth place, on Forward Bloc ticket, he became the Agriculture minister in 1977.

He had differences with the party on Tin Bigha movement in Cooch Behar in '90s and later with Greater Cooch Behar movement.

Barring 1971 and 1972 elections, Guha always won from the Dinhata constitutency until his retirement from active politics in 2006.

He formed Forward Bloc (Socialist) in early nineties following differences with Forward Bloc and was dropped from the ministry in 1991. He again joined the Forward Bloc in 2000 until his retirement from active politics last year.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee condoled the death of Guha.

UNI