Agartala, Jan. 22 (IANS): The body of octogenarian CPI-M leader Khagen Das, who died in Kolkata following a massive cardiac arrest on Sunday, was donated to the government-run Gobinda Ballav Panth Medical College and Hospital here on Monday.
A teacher-turned-politician, Das, 82, a former Tripura Minister and ex-member of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, leaves behind his wife and two daughters.
With 82 red flags facing downwards and dedicatory Communist International songs by artistes and singers, a huge procession of thousands of people went around the capital city Agartala and its outskirts after which the Marxist leader’s body was taken to the government-Hospital before being donated to the medical college authority as per the Left leader’s last wishes.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Politburo member and Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, state party secretary Bijan Dhar, Central Committee member Gautam Das, West district secretary Pabitra Kar, Lok Sabha member Jitendra Choudhury among many other men and women leaders, members and workers accompanied the body as it was taken in a procession.
His body was kept on Sunday at the party office for people to pay their last respects.
“As a mark of respect to the leader -- who joined the CPI-M in 1968 - the party flag since Sunday was flying at half mast and all party programmes remained suspended for Sunday and Monday,” Bijan Dhar said.
“The announcement of names of party candidates for the February 18 Tripura Assembly elections would be done on Tuesday instead of Monday, as announced earlier.”
Chief Minister Sarkar said: “Khagenda was among the leading Communist leaders in Tripura. Just before assembly elections, we have lost a guardian, well-organised and knowledgeable party leader.”
Das was in Kolkata to attend the three-day (January 19-21) Central Committee meeting of the CPI-M when he complained of chest pain early on Sunday at the Tripura Bhavan, where he was put up.
“He expired in the wee hours of Sunday before he was taken to a nearby private hospital,” a visibly shocked Dhar added.
Das was one of the speakers on day two of the Central Committee session on Saturday.
The deceased Left leader was a Rajya Sabha member from 1998 to 2002, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tripura West. He retained the seat in 2004 and 2009.
When the CPI-M-led Left Front government first came to power in Tripura in 1978, Das was a two-term (1978 to 1988) legislator in the Tripura Assembly from Western Tripura’s Majlishpur and served as the Health, Statistics and Revenue Minister in the state from 1983 to 1988.
A postgraduate from Calcutta University, he was the Political Secretary to then Tripura Chief Minister Dasaratha Deb from 1993 to 1998.
He was elected convenor of the Tripura Left Front in 2006 and served in that capacity till his death. He was also a senior member of the party’s Tripura State Secretariat.
A CPI-M Politburo statement said that Das had migrated from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to Kolkata and did his schooling and college in Kolkata. After completing his postgraduation from Calcutta University he worked briefly at the Kolkata Port Trust.
“Later on, he shifted to Agartala in the 1960s and worked as a schoolteacher. It was during his involvement with the schoolteachers’ movement that he was attracted to the party,” it added.
The statement said that Das was the founder-Secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation in Tripura. He was elected to the CPI-M State Secretariat in 1994 and to the Central Committee at its 18th Congress in 2005 in New Delhi.
