Anil Sarkar (1 September 1939 - 11 February 2015) was an Indian politician and member of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...

. He was a nine-term member of the

Tripura Legislative Assembly The Tripura Legislative Assembly or Tripura Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tripura, with 60 Member of the Legislative Assembly (India), Members of the Legislative Assembly. The present Assembly is located in G ...

representing the Pratapgarh assembly constituency.

Political career

Sarkar completed his post-graduation in

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

from the

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

, West Bengal. In 1956 he joined the

Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...

and later in 1964, when the

was established, he joined the

CPI(M) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the six national parties of India. ...

. A staunch Communist, Sarkar was first elected to the Tripura Legislative Assembly from the Teliamura (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in 1972 on a Communist Party of India (Marxist) ticket and defeated his opponent Bir Chandra Barman by about 1600 votes. In the next assembly election of 1977 Sarkar changed his constituency to the Pratapgarh (Vidhan Sabha constituency) and won against the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

candidate Madhusudan Das by about 7500 votes. In the next election of 1983 Sarkar again defeated Madhusudan Das from the Indian national congress by about 5000 votes. In the 1988 assembly election, Sarkar took on the Indian National Congress' Madhusudan Das, whom he had defeated in the 1977 and 1983 election. The result was the same and Sarkar won by a margin of about 2500 votes. This win sent him for the fourth time to Tripura's lower house. By the time the 1993 assembly election took place, Sarkar was already a four-term MLA and defeated congress's Madhusudan Das by about 7000 votes. In the 1998, 2003, and 2008 Tripura assembly election, Sarkar held the seat defeating Narayan Das and Bimal Chandra Barman of the Indian National Congress. The 2013 election was his last; he defeated Ranjit Kumar Das of the Indian National Congress by a margin of about 2000 votes.

Personal life

Sarkar was an acclaimed poet, writer, and intellectual. He authored 24 books and received numerous literary awards. In 1971, he was credited with helping provide relief and shelter in Tripura to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing from the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

. He and his wife had a son. Sarkar died on 11 February 2015 after a long illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkar, Anil 1939 births People from Comilla District 2015 deaths Communist Party of India (Marxist) politicians from Tripura Tripura MLAs 1972–1977 Tripura MLAs 1977–1983 Tripura MLAs 1983–1988 Tripura MLAs 1988–1993 Tripura MLAs 1993–1998 Tripura MLAs 1998–2003 Tripura MLAs 2003–2008 Tripura MLAs 2008–2013 Tripura MLAs 2013–2018