Atish Chandra Sinha (11 July 1940 – 4 March 2010) was a minister and Leader of the Opposition in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

. Physicist

Bikash Sinha Bikash Sinha (16 June 1945 – 11 August 2023) was an Indian physicist who was active in the fields of nuclear physics and high energy physics. Sinha was the director of the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centr ...

is his cousin.

Early life

The son of Bimal Chandra Sinha, scion of the Kandi Raj family and a minister in the

Bidhan Chandra Roy Bidhan Chandra Roy (1 July 1882 – 1 July 1962) was an Indian physician and politician who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1950 until his death in 1962. He played a key role in the founding of several institutions and cities like ...

cabinet, Atish Chandra Sinha was born in the Kandi Raj family on 11 July 1940. A brilliant scholar of Presidency College, Kolkata, he specialized in Geophysics from the

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

in London.

In politics

He joined politics in the 1960s. He was elected to the state assembly as a

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

candidate from Kandi in 1971, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1991, 1996 and 2001. He was elected to the Indian Parliament from

Baharampur (Lok Sabha constituency) Baharampur Lok Sabha constituency (earlier known as Berhampore) is one of the 543 parliamentary constituencies in India. The constituency centres on Baharampur in West Bengal. All the seven assembly segments of No. 10 Baharampur Lok Sabha const ...

in 1984. He was minister of small scale and cottage industries from 1972 to 1977. He was Leader of the Opposition in the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paścimabaṅga Vidhānasabhā'') is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of West Bengal, located in eastern India. It consists of 294 members directly elected from single-seat ...

from 1996 to 2001 and was leader of the Congress legislative party in the West Bengal assembly from 2001 to 2006. As a result of differences with

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (born 2 April 1956) is an Indian politician who served as the leader of the Indian National Congress in the 17th Lok Sabha and from 2019 to 2024 and the Member of Parliament from Berhampore from 1999 to 2024. He has ser ...

within the Congress Party, he joined

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (; AITC), simply known as Trinamool Congress, is an Indian political party that is mainly influential in the Federated state, state of West Bengal. It was founded by Mamata Banerjee on 1 January 1998 as a Lis ...

in 2006. From 2002 onwards, he was ill off and on but did not give up active politics. He was involved in many social activities. He established the Bimal Chandra College of Law in Kandi in the memory of his father, Bimal Sinha. He died at his Kolkata residence on 4 March 2010.

Other activities

He was an active member of Calcutta South Club, whose obituary says of him "A member of the Royal family of Kandi in West Bengal, he was a very active politician of the Congress party. He was a cabinet minister in the

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal, also known as the West Bengal Government, is the Administrative division, principal administrative authority of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal, created by the Constitution ...

when Shri Siddhart Shankar Ray was the Chief Minister, Member of Parliament and leader of opposition in the State Assembly of West Bengal. ...He has been an Executive Committee Member and Vice President of the club for several years. He had been on the Davis Cup Working Committees of the club."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinha, Atish Indian National Congress politicians from West Bengal Trinamool Congress politicians from West Bengal Politicians from Murshidabad district 2010 deaths 1940 births University of Calcutta alumni West Bengal MLAs 1971–1972 West Bengal MLAs 1972–1977 West Bengal MLAs 1977–1982 West Bengal MLAs 1982–1987 West Bengal MLAs 1991–1996 West Bengal MLAs 1996–2001 West Bengal MLAs 2001–2006 India MPs 1984–1989 Lok Sabha members from West Bengal State cabinet ministers of West Bengal Leaders of the opposition in West Bengal Bengali Hindus