Bhakti Bhushan Mandal

Bhakti Bhushan Mandal (1920 – 30 August 2004)[1] was an Indian politician belonging to the All India Forward Bloc.[2] He represented the Dubrajpur seat in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 1962–1967, 1969–1971 and 1977–2001.[3][4]

Mandal held the post of Minister for Judicial and Legislative in the second United Front cabinet formed in West Bengal in 1969.[4]

In the 1970s he took part in founding the Defense Committee, which sought to help Naxalites arrested in staged encounters.[5]

Mandal served as Minister for Fisheries and Co-operatives in the first Left Front cabinet.[6][7] He was a member of the All India Forward Bloc West Bengal State Committee.[6] At the time he was known as a civil rights campaigner and well connected with the Ananda Marg movement.[7] In 1978, he went on a 24-day tour of China and became the president of the India-China Friendship Association.[6]

In the early 1980s he led a Mandal Action Commission, which called for recognition as Other Backward Castes for 177 communities in West Bengal (encompassing around 50 percent of the population of the state).[8] Mandal met with exiled Naga leader Phizo in London and declared himself as intermediary between Phizo and the Delhi government.[6]

Mandal was publicly reprimanded by the Left Front chairman Promode Dasgupta for failure to maintain fish production levels.[6] After the 1982 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Kiranmoy Nanda of the West Bengal Socialist Party was named as new Minister for Fisheries.[9]

Mandal would again be named as Minister for Co-operatives.[10][11] Due to ill health, he was absent for months from his office.[12] At the time of the swearing in of the Buddhadev Bhattacharya government in November 2000, Mandal was hospitalized at SSKM Hospital in Calcutta for malaria[13] Mandal was not nominated for re-election in the 2001 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, due to health reasons.[14][15][16]

References
  1. "Mandal, Bhakti Bhushan". Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts. Volume 1. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs. 2014.
  2. The Hindu. Minister assaulted in Midnapore
  3. "Statistical Reports of Assembly Elections". General Election Results and Statistics. Election Commission of India. Archived from the original on 5 October 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  4. Communist Party of India (Marxist). West Bengal State Committee. Election results of West Bengal: statistics & analysis, 1952–1991. The Committee. pp. 379, 412.
  5. K. G. Kannabiran (2004). The Wages of Impunity: Power, Justice, and Human Rights. Orient Blackswan. p. 328. ISBN 978-81-250-2638-9.
  6. India Today. West Bengal: Sinophilia
  7. India Today. Pressure all round
  8. Mridula Nath Chakraborty (26 March 2014). Being Bengali: At Home and in the World. Taylor & Francis. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-317-81889-2.
  9. Asian Recorder. 28. K. K. Thomas at Recorder Press. 1982. p. lxiii.
  10. D. Venkatachalam (1 January 1998). Bureaucracy: An Evaluation and a Scheme of Account Ability. APH Publishing. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-7024-927-6.
  11. Business Standard. Co-Op Movement
  12. The Telegraph. Wanted: a makeover for Bengal ministry
  13. The Telegraph. OATH OF OFFICE & GRAND FAREWELL
  14. The Tribune. 93 new faces on LF list
  15. The Telegraph. CPM PICKS NEW FACES & SUBHAS Archived 2016-11-22 at the Wayback Machine
  16. The Hindu. Another Minister dropped from candidates list
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