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. Vol. 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. 1 2 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. 1 2 3 4 5 India Today. West Bengal: Sinophilia
  7. 1 2 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. Vol. 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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