Bloc leader Roy Pradhan dies

TT, Jalpaiguri, July 3: Amar Roy Pradhan, the veteran Forward Bloc leader and former MP, breathed his last at a private nursing home here this evening.

He was 83.

Roy Pradhan, a resident of Haldibari in Cooch Behar, joined politics in the 1960s.

He was an active Forward Bloc worker and got elected as the MLA from Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar in 1962.

He was elected thrice to the seat.

In 1977, Roy Pradhan was elected as the MP of Cooch Behar for the first time.

“From 1977, he has been the MP from the same seat eight times,” a Forward Bloc leader said.

In 2004, because of differences with party leader Kamal Guha, Roy Pradhan walked out of Forward Bloc and formed the Subhasbadi Forward Bloc.

Following that, the Left Front nominated CPM’s Hiten Burman for the Cooch Behar seat in 2004. Roy Pradhan lost to Burman.

According to leaders, Roy Pradhan had become inactive after 2004 and mostly stayed in his home at Haldibari, 26km from here.

He was active in organising a movement on Indian and Bangladeshi enclaves and also on adverse possession of land on the India-Bangladesh border at Berubari in Jalpaiguri after the 1971 war.

Roy Pradhan was taken to a nursing home about a fortnight ago after his health deteriorated.

“He was under treatment for the past 15 days and breathed his last around 4pm today because of multi-organ failure,” said Sumantra Mukherjee, a physician attending to him at the Jalpaiguri nursing home.