Bhakti Bhushan Mandal (1920 – 30 August 2004)[1] was an Indian politician belonging to the All India Forward Bloc.[2] He represented the Dubrajpur seat in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly 1962–1967, 1969–1971 and 1977–2001.[3] [4]
Mandal held the post of Minister for Judicial and Legislative in the second United Front cabinet formed in West Bengal in 1969.[4]
In the 1970s he took part in founding the Defense Committee, which sought to help Naxalites arrested in staged encounters.[5]
Mandal served as Minister for Fisheries and Co-operatives in the first Left Front cabinet.[6] He was a member of the All India Forward Bloc West Bengal State Committee.[7] At the time he was known as a civil rights campaigner and well connected with the Ananda Marg movement.[6] In 1978, he went on a 24-day tour of China and became the president of the India-China Friendship Association.[7]
In the early 1980s he led a Mandal Action Commission, which called for recognition as Other Backward Castes for 177 communities in West Bengal (encompassing around 50 percent of the population of the state).[8] Mandal met with exiled Naga leader Phizo in London and declared himself as intermediary between Phizo and the Delhi government.[7]
Mandal was publicly reprimanded by the Left Front chairman Promode Dasgupta for failure to maintain fish production levels.[7] After the 1982 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election Kiranmoy Nanda of the West Bengal Socialist Party was named as new Minister for Fisheries.[9]
Mandal would again be named as Minister for Co-operatives.[10] [11] Due to ill health, he was absent for months from his office.[12] At the time of the swearing in of the Buddhadev Bhattacharya government in November 2000, Mandal was hospitalized at SSKM Hospital in Calcutta for malaria[13] Mandal was not nominated for re-election in the 2001 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, for health reasons.[14] [15] [16]