After landslide win in 2006,tables turned on Buddhadeb

Known for leading a spartan life,the dhoti kurta clad Bengali ‘Bhadralok’ with a clean image,continued to operate from his two-room flat at Palm Avenue which has been home for many years and steered the Front through heavy odds on many an occasion.

But 67-year-old Bhattacharjee,an avid cricket fan,could not get another innings for the ruling alliance after he faced the toughest challenge in his entire political career.

Bhattacharjee succeeded Jyoti Basu when he decided to step down as chief minister in November 2000 on health grounds,ahead of the assembly elections in 2001 and led the LF to victory.

After leading the Front to a landslide win with 235 out of 294 seats in the assembly in 2006,he embarked upon an industrialization drive to change the face of West Bengal,and invited national as well as foreign capital to set up factories in the state which included the world’s cheapest car – Tata Nano.

His plans,however,backfired,as the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress opposed the ‘forcible’ acquisition of land at Singur for the car plant which changed the face of politics in the state.

His government also drew flak not only from the opposition parties,but also from LF partners like Forward Bloc,RSP and CPI,for the police firing in Nandigram in 2007 in which 14 persons were killed.

Wanting to be the architect of modern Bengal,he aggressively pushed his pro-industry stance. The first step in this direction after taking over as the chief minister of the seventh Left Front government was to sign an agreement with the Tatas to set up the Nano unit at Singur.

Holding that the state could not achieve progress by being dependent only on agriculture,he made industrialisation his watch word and his government went ahead with land acquisition despite stiff opposition.

He,however,failed to gauge a developing rift between his party and rural population over land acquisition.

His plans backfired as Trinamool Congress opposed the ‘forcible’ acquisition of land at Singur for the car plant which changed the face of politics in the eastern state.

In the face of a vigorous opposition,the Tatas pulled out of the state and shifted the Nano plant to Gujarat dealing a body blow to Bhattacharjee’s dream project.

In the midst of the Singur movement came the police firing at Nandigram.