INDIA'S CLEANEST AND POOREST CM

Manik Sarkar

FOUR TIMES LUCKYTripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkarphoto

Manik Sarkar assumed office as Tripura chief minister for a record fourth successive term at the head of India’s only Communist government, the defender of the red bastion in a strategically located state that was not too long ago in the grip of ethnic unrest and secessionist militancy.

Honest man with a spartan lifestyle

He is probably India’s only chief minister who does not own a home, car or bank balance worth mentioning. He does not even have a mobile phone and has never used the red beacon on his official car and washes his own clothes every morning.

India’s second longest serving communist chief minister after West Bengal’s Jyoti Basu (June 1977—Nov 2000), Sarkar, 64, led a coalition of the CPI-M and the CPI to a huge electoral win in Tripura, the only state the Communists remain in power after their electoral defeats in their long—held bastions of West Bengal and Kerala in the last national election.

Tripura Governor D.Y. Patil administered the oath of office to the 64-year-old Left leader and his council of ministers at a function at the Raj Bhavan here Wednesday afternoon.

Popularly known as ‘Manik Da’ among his partymen and others, he was known as a firebrand leader here since early 1970s who espoused popular causes.

Born at Udaipur in South Tripura on Jan 22, 1949, in a lower middle-class family, Sarkar’s father Amulya Sarkar was a tailor and his mother Anjali Sarkar was an employee of the state health department. His wife Panchali Bhatacherjee was an officer of the central social welfare department.

Chief minister since 1998, Sarkar, who has a bachelor of commerce degree from Calcutta University, is known as a honest man with a spartan lifestyle.

“His realistic thinking and approach made him a commonly acceptable leader among the middle-aged Communists in the state,” said Samiran Roy, a close friend of Sarkar and editor of a leading local daily Tripura Darpan.

“Manik was the closest follower of Tripura’s first Left chief minister Nripen Chakraborty (1978—1988), a father figure of the Communist movement of Tripura. Thus he follows the life-style of Nripen da, a versatile genius,” Roy told IANS

Sarkar, the second longest serving chief minister in the northeastern region too after Gegong Apang of the Congress who ruled Arunachal Pradesh for 24 years over two periods (1980—99 and 2003—07), succeeded Dasratha Deb (1993—1998), another founder of the Left base in Tripura along with Nripen Chakraborty.

Sarkar become a CPI-M politburo member at the party’s 17th Congress in Hyderabad in March 2002. In the Feb 14 polls, Sarkar defeated his Congress rival Shah Alam by 6,017 votes.In the last polls in 2008, Sarkar’s winning margin was 2,918. This is his sixth electoral victory