Manik Sarkar is an Indian

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

politician who served as the

Chief Minister of Tripura The Chief Minister of Tripura, an Indian state, is the head of the Government of Tripura. As per the Constitution of India, the Governor of Tripura is the state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief mini ...

from March 1998 to March 2018. He is a Politburo 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 ...

. In March 2008, he was sworn in as leader of Left Front, the Tripura coalition government. In assembly elections held in 2013, he became the chief minister for the fourth consecutive time. Currently, he serves as the

Leader of Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

Tripura Legislative Assembly The Tripura Legislative Assembly or Tripura Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tripura, with 60 Members of the Legislative Assembly. The present Assembly is located in Gurkhabasti. Ujjayanta Palace in Agartala ser ...

. His

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...

for the 2018 Tripura Assembly election revealed that he is the chief minister with the least possessions among all his

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in India.

Early life and background

Manik Sarkar was born into a middle-class family. His father, Amulya Sarkar, worked as a tailor, while his mother, Anjali Sarkar, was a State and later Provincial

government employee The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. Sarkar became active in student movements in his student days, and in 1968, at the age of 19, he became a member of the

. He was a candidate of the

Students' Federation of India The Students' Federation of India (abbreviated as SFI) is an Indian left-wing student organisation politically aligned to the ideologies of Independence, Democracy and Socialism. Currently, V. P. Sanu and Mayukh Biswas are elected as the All ...

throughout his academic life at

MBB College Maharaja Bir Bikram College or MBB College is a degree college of the Indian state of Tripura, imparting general education in the streams of Science, Commerce and Humanities. Established in 1947, it is the oldest college in the state of Tripura ...

, from where he graduated with a B. Com. degree. During his first year at the college there came the turbulent times of the food movement of 1967, campaigning against the policy of the then Congress government of Tripura, and Sarkar threw himself headlong into the related student struggle. His vigorous role in this mass movement led him to join the Communists. Due to his early political exposure, he also became the General Secretary of the MBB College Student Union and was also made the Vice President of the

. In 1972, at the early age of 23, he joined the State Committee of the

Political career

Six years after being selected in the

CPI (M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the nat ...

State Committee, Sarkar was included in the party state

Secretariat Secretariat may refer to: * Secretariat (administrative office) * Secretariat (horse) Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse who is the ninth winne ...

in the year 1978. This was also the year when the first Left Front government had taken control in

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 ...

. In 1980, at the age of 31, he was elected as the

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 ...

from the

Agartala Agartala () is the capital city of the Indian state of Tripura, and is one of the largest cities in northeast India. The city is governed by the Agartala Municipal Corporation. The city is the seat of the Government of Tripura. It is located on ...

constituency. This was the start of Manik Sarkar's leadership in his state. At around the same time, he was appointed the

Chief Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

of the

. His success as the

returned in 1983, when he was elected to the Assembly from

Krishnanagar, Agartala Krishna Nagar is one of the most densely populated parts of the Agartala city and located almost in the middle of Agartala. Royal Ujjayanta Palace which is now visitors point formerly Tripura Legislative Assembly is situated west part of Krishn ...

. When the Left Front government took control in 1993, Sarkar was appointed the State Secretary of the

. The biggest success came to Sarkar in 1998. At the age of 49, he became a member of the

politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

of the

, which is the principal policy-making and executive committee in a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

party. In the same year, he became the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

of the state of

. Since then, he was elected to the same position four consecutive times in 20 years. He is one of the very few chief Ministers in India who was in the office for so long. His party lost majority in the

2018 elections The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2018. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world. Africa *2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election 23 February 2018 *2018 Sierra Leonean general elect ...

and he had to step down as a result.

Personal life

Sarkar is married to Panchali Bhattacharya, who was employed with the Central Social Welfare Board till she retired in 2011. Sarkar and his wife live a very simple life. Sarkar is the only Indian

who does not own a personal car or a home. He chooses to live in an old and a very small house that belonged to his great grandfather. He used to donate his entire salary that he received as a

to his party and in return, got 10,000 (approximately US$155) per month as allowance.

Controversy

* According to Tripura education minister

Ratan Lal Nath Ratan Lal Nath (born 9 April 1948) is an Indian politician from Tripura. He is the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Power and Election in the second Manik Saha Ministry. He joined BJP in 2017 after leaving National Congress.He bec ...

, former chief minister Manik Sarkar genuinely took on the role of a whistleblower in the Rs 640 crore PWD fraud investigation that resulted in the indictment of numerous officials including former PWD minister Badal Choudhury. * Manik Sarkar of Tripura, who holds the title of "poorest Chief Minister" of India, may once more experience sleepless nights as a result of the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) arrest of Bengali actor-turned-Trinamool lawmaker Tapas Pal on Friday for his alleged connections with the multi-billion-dollar ponzi scheme of firm Rose Valley. Rose Valley was originally based in the northeastern state.

References

External links