Kolkata: Veteran CPI leader and former MP Gurudas Dasgupta died on Thursday following a prolonged illness, party sources said. He was 83.
The CPI leader was suffering from heart and kidney-related ailments. Dasgupta was the CPI’s former deputy general secretary and a well-known trade unionist.
He was elected as general secretary of All India Trade Union Congress in 2001 and also became the elected member of the National Secretariat, Communist Party of India, in 2004.
Dasgupta was also detained under the Defence of India Rules in 1965 and went underground on a number of occasions during Congress rule in West Bengal.
He was suffering from lung cancer for last several months, West Bengal CPI secretary Swapan Banerjee said.
He (Dasgupta) passed away at his home in Kolkata at 6am. He was suffering from lung cancer for quite some time. Due to his poor health he had relinquished party posts but was a member of CPI national executive council,” Banerjee said.
Dasgupta, known for his oratory skills, was a veteran trade union leader of AITUC. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1985. He was also a member of the Lok Sabha from Panskura in 2004 and Ghatal in 2009.
