Chitta Basu (politician)

Chitta Basu (Bengali: চিত্ত বসু) (25 December 1926 – 5 October 1997) was an Indian politician and a leader of the All India Forward Bloc. He was born in Dacca, in 1926. In his obituary, The Indian Express described Basu as belonging to the rare tribe of politicians who did politics for a cause and practiced what they preached. Barasat was his Indian Parliamentary constituency for over two decades.

Basu graduated from Daulatpur College in Khulna district (British India). He later earned his masters from the University of Calcutta.

Chitta Basu joined the Forward Bloc formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in 1939, after Bose resigned from the National Congress. Basu worked for the party since he had joined it as a promising student leader in 1945. He rose to become the party's youth wing, All-India Yuba League's general secretary in 1947-48. After Partition, Basu immersed himself in refugee rehabilitation work. In 1972, he became the party's central committee member and then the general secretary in 1977, a post that he held until his death.

In 1957, he was first elected to the West Bengal state legislative assembly from Barasat constituency of the then undivided 24 Parganas district. In 1966, he became a Rajya Sabha member. He was elected to the 6th Lok Sabha from Barasat constituency in 1977. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980, 1989, 1991 and 1996 from the same constituency. In 1996, he became a member of the United Front steering committee.

Basu was one of the AIFB (All India Forward Bloc) leaders who struggled for the party's survival immediately after Independence; other political parties (particularly Left and a section of Indian socialists) abused the Forward Bloc over Bose's alliance with the Axis.

Chitta Basu died of a heart attack on the Howrah-bound Danapur Express between Madhupur and Jasidih stations in Bihar on Sunday morning, 5 October 1997. He was returning to Calcutta after attending an anti-Laloo rally organised by a 17-party left and democratic front in Patna. He died a bachelor at the age of 72.