If Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has failed to usher in one reform and isn’t quite keen on it, it’s in his personal life—and it’s about cigarettes.

The West Bengal chief minister is striving hard to reduce the number of cigarettes he smokes—and the cups of tea he drinks. At one point, when he was smoking over 50 cigarettes a day, his daughter Suchetana stepped in to put on the brakes.

Friends supply him with enough stocks of 555 cigarettes but the brand is no bar. Whatever comes by way of an offering is accepted in case of cigarettes.

And that’s the only self-declared “luxury” in the life of the Chief Minister of West Bengal.

His declaration of wealth before the Election Commission provides an interesting peep into the man. It reads: ‘‘Bank account: Nil; Cash: Nil, Deposits in banks, financial institutions: Nil; Postal savings, LIC: Nil; Motor Vehicles: Nil; Jewellery: Nil; Agricultural land: Nil, Buildings: Nil.’’

The Rs 8,000-plus salary that Bhattacharjee gets from the government as the chief minister is handed over to the CPI(M). People close to him say that Bhattacharjee does not even know his exact salary. Every month, he takes the sealed salary packet and hands it over to Alimuddin Street, the party headquarters. Instead, Bhattacharjee gets Rs 3,200 per month as a ‘‘whole-timer of CPI (M) in Alimuddin Street.’’ (The rate for whole-timers varies according to locations.)

Bhattacharjee, of course, has a working wife in Meera Bhattacharjee, a librarian of Development Consultants Limited, a private engineering and architectural firm in Kolkata. Some time back, the company offered a special car for her use. But she refused, opting to continue with the pool car that was being used for others.

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