Kamal Guha

Kamal Kanti Guha
Minister for Agriculture,
Agriculture Marketing & Public Health Engineering
In office
1977–2006
MLA
In office
1962-1969–1977-2006
Constituency Dinhata
Personal details
Born 20 January 1928
Dinhata, British India
Died 6 August 2007 (aged 79)
Cooch Behar
Nationality Indian
Political party All India Forward Bloc
Alma mater University of Calcutta
Profession Politician, social worker

Kamal Guha (1928 – 2007) was an Indian politician. He was an All India Forward Bloc leader and member of the Left Front cabinet in the Indian state of West Bengal for over two decades.[1]

Early life

Born at Dinhata on January 20, 1928, he passed his matriculation from Dinhata High School where former president of Bangladesh, Hossain Mohammad Ershad was his classmate, and passed Intermediate Arts from Victoria College (now Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College) in Cooch Behar, which was then affiliated with the University of Calcutta.[2] Guha was inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose at a very young age. He decided to join politics when he was still a student and Forward Bloc seemed to be the obvious choice.[1]

Political career

Guha won his first election to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1962. He contested and won the Dinhata seat 8 times in every election except 1971.He Was Elected MLA For Eight Times.[1] In the 2006 Assembly election he quit from contesting the Dinhata seat.[2] He became a member of the cabinet in 1977, 1982,1987 and 2001 and headed the departments of agriculture, agriculture marketing and public health engineering.[1]

Guha had a major contribution in strengthening the party in West Bengal. In the late 80s, he took up the cause of people living the enclaves. In 1992 he was expelled by his party because of severe differences over handing over the Teen Bigha corridor to Bangladesh. Unperturbed, he formed Forward Bloc (Socialist) and won against the official Left Front candidate at Dinhata. After about seven years he returned to the Forward Bloc.[1]

Guha was seen as an anti-Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) voice within the Left Front. He was vociferous against the state government’s market-driven farm policy.[3] In 2002, he had said that the indiscriminate recruitment of CPI(M) cadres by government departments and frequent increase in their salary has made the West Bengal government bankrupt.[4]

Guha was not keeping well in later life and died on 6 August 2007.[2] Condoling his death the Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas said that Guha was a “leader of the people and always fought for the rights of the toiling masses.”[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Death of a rare visionary". The Statesman, 7 August 2008. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  2. 1 2 3 "Kamal Guha dies". The Hindu, 7 August 2008. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  3. ↑ "Kamal Guha dead". The Telegraph, 7 August 2008. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
  4. ↑ "Kamal Guha casts one more stone at CPM". Times of India, 1 November 2002. 31 October 2002. Retrieved 2007-08-08.
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