Banerjee

Calcutta, Feb. 3: Power min- ister Mrinal Banerjee, who was suffering from cancer, died this afternoon. He was 71.

“He (Banerjee) was admitted to our hospital on January 28 and shifted to the critical care unit the next day. He died at 12.55pm today of sepsis and multiple organ failure,” said the medical superintendent of AMRI Hospitals, Dhakuria.

The government declared its offices closed from 2pm as a mark of respect.

Around 4pm, the body was taken to Writers’ Buildings, where chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his cabinet colleagues paid their tributes. From there, the cortege went to the Assembly. At the state CPM headquarters, politburo members Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury were among those who paid their last respects to Banerjee.

Born in Bangladesh’s Barisal, Banerjee came to Bengal after partition and was raised in Burdwan district. He joined student politics in the mid-1950s and rose to become the Burdwan secretary of the SFI. He had a long trade union background and was a Citu secretariat member. He was first elected to the Assembly, from Durgapur I constituency, in 1996.

He had been in charge of the power portfolio for over a decade. The responsibility was thrust on him by the CPM on the insistence of Jyoti Basu after Sankar Sen resigned in 1999. Although reluctant initially, Banerjee was picked primarily because of his engineering background. He was given the additional charge of labour in 2006 but was relieved of the responsibility last year because of ill health.

Banerjee is survived by his wife.