The face of the CPI(M)-led Left Front in the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections, Surjya Kanta Mishra is credited with standing up against the political onslaught of the Trinamool Congress, often referred to as the Trinamool-tornado.
A medical doctor by profession, he joined the CPI(M) in 1973 and became president of the West Midnapore zilla parishad in the late eighties. Dr. Mishra has been consistently elected to the State Assembly since 1991 and helmed various departments such as Land and Land Reforms, Panchayat and Rural Development and Health and Family Welfare.
He became the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly in 2011, after the defeat of the Left Front who ruled the State since 1977. He was appointed member of the Polit Bureau, the highest decision making body of the CPI(M) in 2012.
When Dr. Mishra was assigned the additional responsibility of leading the CPI(M) in the West Bengal, it was seen as a rarity in the history of the party. He was only the second State Secretary since the 1970s to have won an election.
Dr. Mishra’s appointment in 2015 is seen as a generational shift with senior leaders such as Biman Basu, former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Nirupam Sen retiring to the background.
Born: April 18, 1949
Education: MBBS
Political career:
- Joined CPI(M) in 1973
- Party MLA since 1991
- Minister in Left Front government in 2006
- Leader of the Opposition since 2011
- Appointed CPI(M) Polit Bureau member in 2012
- CPI(M) West Bengal unit secretary since 2015
