CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statement on August 6

THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses its deep sorrow and anguish at the death of Comrade Shyamal Chakraborty, member of the Central Committee of the Party. He was aged 77 and died this afternoon at a Kolkata hospital following a cardiac arrest.

He was admitted to the hospital a few days ago due to some health issues and later tested positive for Covid-19.

Shyamal Chakraborty joined the student movement in the early 1960s and was elected general secretary of the students’ union at the Vidyasagar  College, Calcutta.

He joined the undivided Communist Party in 1960. He was elected to the West Bengal legislative assembly for the first time in 1981 and later on for three more terms. He served as minister for transport for nine years. He was also elected to the Rajya Sabha for a term.

Shyamal Chakraborty was associated with various unions of workers. He discharged responsibilities in the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in various capacities including serving as the president of its West 
Bengal unit.

He was elected to the state committee of the Party in 1978 and the Central Committee in 2002.

He was jailed for a period of a year and stayed underground for six months.

The Polit Bureau sends its heartfelt condolences to his daughter Ushasi and to the entire membership of the Party in West Bengal.

CONDOLENCE

THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions, in a separate statement issued on August 6, has expressed deep grief at the demise of Comrade Shyamal Chakraborty, senior and veteran leader of the country’s trade union movement and a leading personality of CITU.

He played frontline role in organising the working class movement in West Bengal and also in the national sphere. He was actively associated in leading the movement in a number of strategic sectors like electricity, road transport, port & dock etc and was in the national level leadership of the respective all India federations. He led the West Bengal CITU as its state president for around two decades. Com Shyamal Chakraborty was elected in the national secretariat of CITU from its seventh conference in 1991 and was in that position as vice president  till the 15th conference of CITU and got voluntarily relieved from that position in the 16th conference of CITU held in 2020, despite remaining quite active in the trade union work.

CITU conveys its heartfelt condolences at the demise of one of its senior leaders, Com Shyamal Chakraborty, to his bereaved daughter Ushasi and other family members and other comrades. CITU dips its flag in respectful homage to the departed leader. Comrade Shyamal Chakraborty Amar Rahe.