Kamal Guha

Kamal Guha (1928 – 2007) was an Indian politician. He was an All India Forward Bloc leader and member of the Left Front cabinet in the Indian state of West Bengal for over two decades.

Born at Dinhata on January 20, 1928, he passed his matriculation from Dinhata High School where former president of Bangladesh, Hossain Mohammad Ershad was his classmate, and passed Intermediate Arts from Victoria College (now Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College) in Cooch Behar, which was then affiliated with the University of Calcutta. Guha was inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose at a very young age. He decided to join politics when he was still a student and Forward Bloc seemed to be the obvious choice.

Guha won his first election to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in 1962. He contested and won the Dinhata seat 8 times in every election except 1971.He Was Elected MLA For Eight Times. In the 2006 Assembly election he quit from contesting the Dinhata seat. He became a member of the cabinet in 1977, 1982,1987 and 2001 and headed the departments of agriculture, agriculture marketing and public health engineering.

Guha had a major contribution in strengthening the party in West Bengal. In the late 80s, he took up the cause of people living the enclaves. In 1992 he was expelled by his party because of severe differences over handing over the Teen Bigha corridor to Bangladesh. Unperturbed, he formed Forward Bloc (Socialist) and won against the official Left Front candidate at Dinhata. After about seven years he returned to the Forward Bloc.

Guha was seen as an anti-Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) voice within the Left Front. He was vociferous against the state government’s market-driven farm policy. In 2002, he had said that the indiscriminate recruitment of CPI(M) cadres by government departments and frequent increase in their salary has made the West Bengal government bankrupt.

Guha was not keeping well in later life and died on 6 August 2007. Condoling his death the Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas said that Guha was a “leader of the people and always fought for the rights of the toiling masses.”