Kolkata: Senior Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader and former West Bengal minister Kshiti Goswami died at a private hospital in Chennai due to old age-related illness on Sunday morning, family sources said.
He was suffering from age-related illness. Goswami was admitted to the Chennai hospital after he was diagnosed with a lung infection.
The leader of the RSP, a constituent of the Left Front, served as the state PWD minister for more than two decades—since the late eighties till 2011, when the regime was voted out of power.
He was also the state secretary of the RSP for a few years since 2012. Goswami was elected the party’s national general secretary last year during its national conference.Although an important member of the Left Front, Goswami never shied away from criticising the erstwhile dispensation in the state over some of its policies—be it forcible land acquisition in Singur for a car manufacturing plant or the attempt to set up a chemical hub in Nandigram despite stiff resistance from farmers.Known as a jovial and media-friendly politician, he was of the opinion that the Left in Bengal has to reinvent itself to remain relevant in state politics.
The veteran leader had opposed Left Front-Congress alliance in 2016 Assembly polls, saying it would be disastrous for the Front and its constituents.
His body will be brought to Kolkata in the evening and last rites will be performed on Monday. Leaders cutting across party lines condoled Goswami’s death on Sunday.
