Jyoti Basu

Jyoti Basu was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of the Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was a member of Politburo of the party from its formation in 1964 until 2008. He was also a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 11 times. In his political career, spanning over seven decades, he was noted to have been India's longest serving chief minister under elected democracy at the time of his resignation. He declined the post of Prime Minister after the 1996 Indian general election, after the CPM refused to let him head a multi-party coalition as it would not be able to implement Marxist programs, and relinquished the prime ministership to Deve Gowda.