Jyoti Basu

Trivia

• Basu returned to Calcutta in 1940 and became a leader of the Eastern Bengal Railroad Workers' Union.
• He was elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1946.
• After partition, he remained member of the Assembly but was arrested when the Communist Party of India was banned following its call for open revolt.
• He was released upon the orders of the High Court and remained a Legislative Assembly Member between 1952 and 1972.
• In the 1950s Basu, with Parmode Das Gupta, became the joint leader of the West Bengal Communists.
• He became state party secretary and led the parliamentary tactics of the CPI in Bengal against the Congress. The anti-Congress nature of Bengal Communism led Basu to align with the Communist Party of India (CPI(M)) following the division of the Communist Party of India in 1964.
• In 1967 Basu became Deputy Chief Minister in a coalition United Front government in Bengal in which the CPI(M) was one of the leading parties. This coalition collapsed after eight months.
• Fresh elections were held in February 1969 in which the CPI(M) emerged as the largest party. Basu was again Deputy Chief Minister in a United Front government that lasted until 1971.
• In 1977 Basu was elected to the Parliament from Satgachia. The CPI(M) also won a majority in the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
• Basu became Chief Minister of West Bengal and under his leadership the CPI(M) has won successive elections since (1982, 1987, 1992, 1996). It is the largest democratically elected Communist movement in the world.

Quotes

• “Let (the) Election Commission do whatever it likes, but we are going to win this time also.”
• “I don't know why are we having elections in five phases. Maybe because workers and officers of the State have helped us in implementing our policies.”
• “I have been seeing elections since pre-independence days in 1946, but I never saw election being conducted in five phases in the state. I don't understand why the EC has taken this decision.”
• “Though the opposition parties, which have no ideology or morality in politics, have been crying themselves hoarse about failure of a grand alliance, they could enter into an alliance secretly.”
• “There has been no case of government employees being partial in the past.”
• “Despite advice, he never took rest.”
• “Is it so? Sonia Gandhi has resigned? Whatever is therein law will take place. I will not comment further.”
• “The present government, it seems to me, is thinking that without America nothing can be done. What Nehru did, they are completely altering it.”
• “What can we do? We have no other alternative at the moment.”
• “He is the biggest terrorist of the world and I support the protests against his visit.”