Kolkata, April 11 Abdur Razaak Molla, the Communist-turned-Trinamool Congress leader who served as minister in both the CPI-M-led Left Front and the Trinamool Congress governments in West Bengal, died here on Friday. He was 80.
Molla was suffering from age-related ailments for quite some time and was virtually bedridden.
In the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya-led Left Front government, Mollah had served as the state Land & Land Revenue Minister, a post which had always been considered the second most important portfolio after the Chief Minister in the entire Left Front regime of 34 years from 1977 to 2011.
Even though the Left Front government was ousted from power in 2011, he managed to get elected from his traditional constituency of Canning (Purba) in the South 24 Parganas district. However, since then, his relationship with the CPI-M leadership started getting strained, and ultimately, he was suspended from the party due to anti-party activities.
He continued as an independent member of the Assembly for quite some time after that. Before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections, Molla joined the Trinamool and it nominated him from the Bhangar Assembly constituency, also in the South 24 Parganas district.
He got elected, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made him Food Processing Minister. However, he did not contest the 2021 Assembly elections because of his failing health.
Even as the second most powerful minister in the previous Left Front government, Molla had been an ardent critic of the industrialisation polices of Chief Minister Bhattacharjee.
His logic was that because of Bhattacharjee’s industrial policies, the CPI-M was losing popularity among their traditional and dedicated rural vote bank, especially among the farming community, and had raised his voice against the acquisition of farmland for setting up industrial units.
When the Left Front lost power in 2011 to the Trinamool, riding on its movement against land acquisition for industry, Molla did not spare his barbs at his former party.
Attacking Bhattacharjee and erstwhile Industries & Commerce Minister Nirupam Sen, Molla quipped: "Hele dhorte pare na, keute dhorte geche (one who cannot catch a non-poisonous snake, went to catch a cobra)".
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor