Former Industry minister Nirupam Sen passes away

Kolkata: Nirupam Sen, the last Industry minister of the CPI(M) government, died at a private nursing home in Salt Lake on Monday. He was 72-years-old and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

A former Politburo and Central Committee member of CPI(M), the mortal remains of Sen will be kept in a mortuary and will be cremated at his hometown in Burdwan on Wednesday.

Condoling Sen's death, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Saddened at the passing away of Nirupam Sen, former minister of West Bengal. Condolences to his family and well wishers."

Sen was suffering from kidney ailment for quite some time and had been suffering from breathing difficulty as well. He was on life support for the past one week.

Considered to be a theoretician within the party, Sen was the secretary of the Burdwan district committee of CPI(M) from 1989 to 1995. He became a full time member of the party in 1968. He became an MLA in 1987 and became a Central Committee member of CPI(M) in 1998 and a Politburo member in 2008.

He was the Industry minister when the Nandigram and Singur incidents took place. He was defeated by a margin of over 30,000 votes by Rabiranjan Chattopadhyay of Trinamool Congress in 2011. He, along with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had argued strongly in favour of alliance with Congress before the 2016 Assembly election.