THOUSANDS of people paid their tributes to Comrade Benoy Konar , veteran Communist leader and legendary figure in peasants’ movement, who passed away on September 14 at a hospital in Kolkata. He was 84.

Born in Memari in Burdwan in 1930, Comrade Benoy Konar began to participate in the freedom struggle and joined the Communist Party in 1948. He was greatly influenced by his elder brother Harekrishna Konar, one of the stalwarts of peasant movement in India. Comrade Benoy Konar devoted his life from the very beginning to build the struggles of the peasants and agricultural workers and remained one among them till his last breath. In the sixties, there was a great upheaval in rural West Bengal and millions of people participated in the militant land movement. The formation of two successive United Front ministries in 1967 and 1969 gave immense fillip to this struggle. Peasants faced all obstacles and asserted their rights over vested and ceiling-excess lands. Comrade Benoy Konar was one of the most popular leaders of this struggle in Burdwan. He faced police brutalities and was arrested under false cases. He was elected from Memari assembly constituency in 1969, 1971 and 1977. He contested elections in 1977 from jail.

After the formation of the Left Front government, Comrade Konar led many struggles and mobilisations to successfully implement land reforms and for decentralisation of power through panchayats. Later he served as the general secretary and president of West Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha. He served as the national president of the All India Kisan Sabha for years, and later was the vice president of the organisation.

He became a member of the West Bengal state committee of the CPI(M) in 1982, and became state secretariat member in 1991. In 1995, he became a member of the Central Committee. Comrade Benoy Konar was elected as chairman of the Party’s Central Control Commission at the 20th Congress in 2012 but later expressed his physical inability to perform the responsibility. He was an invited member of West Bengal state committee and attended meetings regularly despite ill health. A powerful speaker Comrade Konar was firm in ideological questions. He lived a spartan life, used to stay in a small room in Kisan Sabha office.

On September 15, Comrade Konar’s body was brought to the CPI(M)  state office Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in the morning. CPI(M) Polit Bureau members S Ramachandran Pillai, Brinda Karat reached Kolkata to pay their last respects. Polit Bureau members Biman Basu, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Nirupam Sen, Party’s Jharkhand state secretary GK Bakshi and state party leaders paid their tributes. Left Front leaders including veteran Forward Block leader Ashok Ghosh, CPI (ML-Liberation) leader Kartik Pal, leaders of various Left and democratic parties paid their tributes. The body was then taken to Kisan Sabha office where state and district peasant leaders paid their homage. His body was then taken to Memari, where thousands of people gathered in the streets to pay their last respects to this legendary leader . Comrade Benoy Konar’s body was then taken to Burdwan town in a cavalcade bearing red flags. His body was kept at CPI(M) district committee office where hundreds of people gathered to offer their respects to a man whom they revered so much. His body was then taken in a funeral procession to Burdwan Medical College where it was donated.

Rich tributes were paid to Comrade Benoy Konar by Party leaders. Biman Basu termed him as a Communist whose life meant Party. Basu said Comrade Benoy Konar always tried to set example by taking up hard tasks and great risks. S Ramachandran  Pillai said, Comrade Benoy Konar’s departure is a loss to the peasants’ movement in the entire country. We have to take lessons from his life to overcome the challenges that have developed, he said.