CPI(M) leader Vasudev Acharya passes away

Kolkata. Vasudev Acharya, a veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and nine-time Lok Sabha member from Bankura constituency of West Bengal, died on Monday at the age of 81. He died in a private hospital in Hyderabad where he was undergoing treatment for a long time. Acharya was first elected from Bankura in 1980. As of 2014, he has been elected from that constituency for nine consecutive terms.

However, in the 2014 Lok Sabha election he lost from that constituency to the Trinamool Congress candidate and actress-turned-politician Moon Moon Sen, which was quite unexpected for political critics of the state. Party insiders said his daughter is currently abroad and is expected to reach Hyderabad by tomorrow, after which her last rites will be performed. Born on 11 July 1942 in Purulia district of West Bengal, Acharya was associated with leftist politics since his student days. Acharya later moved from student politics to trade union politics and was the leading face of labor movements in the Railway Department.

He also played an active role in tribal education in the tribal-dominated Bankura district of West Bengal, from where he was a long-term Lok Sabha member. He was also a member of the Central Committee of the party for a long time. He was allegedly attacked by workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress while leading a procession of CPI(M) workers in Purulia during the 2018 three-tier panchayat elections in the state. He was seriously injured in the attack.