Ajoy Biswas is an Indian politician from

Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...

, and former member of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

(CPI(M)).

Political career

Biswas started in politics by becoming an independent MLA in 1972. He was elected as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

in Tripura, defeating the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

MLA in the elections of 1977. Biswas gradually moved to national politics and was elected as a member of the

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

and

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from 1980 to 1989. Biswas was a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

activist in Tripura and founded several trade unions there, including the Tripura Employees Coordination Committee, and the Tripura branches of the

AITUC The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) is the oldest trade union federation in India. It is associated with the Communist Party of India. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, AITUC had a membership of 14.2 milli ...

, and the DYFI. He also held important positions in several workers' unions in the state. After the split of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964, the CPI-M came to be known as the party of the

tribals The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

in the state of Tripura. Until the early 1970s CPI(M) was not popular in the Bengali community of the state. Biswas played an important role in building the party organisation among the Bengalis of Tripura. With this mass movement, he was able to help defeat the locally strong

in the elections of 1977. This played a pivotal role in bringing the CPI-M to power in 1978. During the 8th Lok Sabha, he took part in a debate on 31 August 1987 with the then Defence Minister

K. C. Pant Krishna Chandra Pant (10 August 1931 – 15 November 2012) was an Indian Member of Parliament for 26 years and was the prime minister's interlocutor on Kashmir. He was a cabinet minister in the Government of India and held several constitutio ...

, in what became known in the national press as the "Bofors debate". Biswas was a trade union leader and social worker, and several trade and workers' unions in the state were formed under his leadership. He was arrested in connection with political activities in 1966, 1969, 1971 and 1977.

Ideological differences and formation of People's Democratic Front

In late 1980s Biswas became vocal against then Tripura's Chief Minister and CPI(M) president

Nripen Chakraborty Nripen Chakraborty (4 April 1905 – 25 December 2004) was an Indian Communist politician who served as the Chief minister of Tripura state from 1978 to 1988. Nripen Chakraborty was involved in the Communist movement in India for six decades. ...

's style of leadership. The ideological objection was regarding Chakraborty's way of governance and non-compliance with section 112 of CPI(M) working principle, which emphasizes "more power to people" rather than government. This ideological difference widened and attracted a central stage of CPI(M) national and politbureau meetings, eventually leading Biswas to quit the party and form Janganotantrik Morcha. A number of supporters of Biswas' ideology also followed him, including the Tripura Employees coordination committee (TECC), originally founded by Biswas in 1968. TECC comprises 13 unions, with TGTA and TTA being the largest. As a result of this split Biswas retained the TECC unions. This eventually led to the loss of CPI(M) in the elections of 1988. Biswas continues to campaign for the Tripura employees’ demands and welfare.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biswas, Ajoy Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Tripura Living people Tripura MLAs 1972–1977 Trade unionists from Tripura India MPs 1980–1984 India MPs 1984–1989 Lok Sabha members from Tripura People from West Tripura district Indians imprisoned during the Emergency (India) Year of birth missing (living people) Tripura MLAs 1977–1983