Gaurishankar Bhattacharyya

Gaurishankar Bhattacharyya (10 December 1915 - 23 June 2002 ? ^[1]) was an Assamese freedom fighter, social activist, litterateur and politician, who served as the Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly.^[2]

Early life and education

Bhattacharya was born in Samarkuchi village of Nalbari district to Souridutta Bhattacharyya, a Sanskrit Pandit.^[1] He did his undergraduate from Cotton College, and earned an M. A. in history from Presidency College, Kolkata.^[1]

Political career

Bhattacharya was active in politics since his student days;^[1] in 1939, he was elected as the president of the All Assam Students Federation.^[3]

In 1952, Bhattacharya won election to the Assam Legislative Assembly from the Guwahati constituency for the Communist Party of India (CPI) defeating Rajabala Das of the Indian National Congress (INC).^[3][a] He was the only legislator from CPI in the House. In 1957, he defended the seat, defeating Lakshmidhar Borah of the INC.^[b] However, five years later in 1962, Bhattacharya suffered defeat at the hands of Debendra Nath Sharma, the INC candidate.^[c] Months afterward, during the Sino-Indian War, Bhattacharya was subject to preventive detention by the Congress government for his activism; he would leave CPI, shortly.^[4]

In the 1967 elections, Bhattacharya stood as an independent candidate from the newly delimited Borbhag constituency and eked out a comfortable win over Pabindra Nath Sarma of the INC.^[d] Two years later, Bhattacharya collaborated with Renuka Devi Barkataki, a Congress renegade, to launch the Peoples Democratic Party of Assam (PDPA);^[e] it would be the first regional party to contest the assembly elections.^[1][5][6] Five years later, Bhattacharya stood as an independent candidate from Borbhag again, and won against Sarma.^[f] Bhattacharya became the leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly. The Peoples democratic Party (PDPA) later merged with Janata Party in 1977.^[7]

Literature

Bhattacharya moved away from politics in his later life, devoting time to literature; in 1999, he was conferred with the national Sahitya Academy Award (Anubad Suchi Samman) by the Sahitya Akademi for translating B.R. Aggarwalla's Trials of Independence into Assamese.^[8]

Personal life

Bhattacharya married Tarulata Bhattacharya; they had three sons — Dibya Shankar Bhattacharya who is a senior Indian Army officer, Dhruba Shankar Bhattacharya (now deceased) and Siddhartha Bhattacharya, and three daughters.^[9][10] Siddhartha Bhattacharya is a legislator from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

His eldest grandson is Arnab Goswami, an Indian right-wing news anchor and editor-in-Chief of Republic TV.^[1]

Notes

1. Only 44.41% of the electorate voted in the polls. Bhattacharya secured 5505 votes, winning by a margin of 213.
2. Only 52.08% of the electorate voted in the polls. Bhattacharya secured 14,182 votes, winning by a margin of 973.
3. Only 58.39% of the electorate voted in the polls. Bhattacharya secured 8560 votes, losing by a margin of 5487.
4. Only 46.4% of the electorate voted in the polls. Bhattacharya secured 14,772 votes, winning by a margin of 4346.
5. Not to be confused with Hill State People's Democratic Party, formed in Assam around the same time.
6. Only 52.8% of the electorate voted in the polls. Bhattacharya secured 14,772 votes, winning by a margin of 629.