Hashim Abdul Halim Explained

Hashim Abdul Halim
Birth Date:1935 6, df=yes[1]
Residence:Kolkata
Death Place:Kolkata, India
2Blankname5:Ministry
2Namedata5:Minister, Judicial Department, Government of West Bengal[2]
Term Start5:1977
Term End5:1982
Office2:Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Term Start2:6 May 1982
Term End2:18 May 2011
Successor2:Gyan Singh Sohanpal (pro tem)
Biman Banerjee
Term Start4:1977
Term End4:2006
Constituency4:Amdanga
Predecessor4:New Seat
Successor4:Abdus Sattar
Office3:Member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Term Start3:2006
Term End3:2011
Constituency3:Entally
Predecessor3:Md. Abu Sufyan
Successor3:Swarna Kamal Saha
Party:Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Children:4(Including Fuad Halim)
Governor5:Anthony Lancelot Dias
Tribhuvana Narayana Singh
Bhairab Dutt Pande
1Blankname5:Chief Minister
Governor2:Bhairab Dutt Pande
Anant Prasad Sharma
Uma Shankar Dikshit
Saiyid Nurul Hasan
K. V. Raghunatha Reddy
Viren J. Shah
Gopalkrishna Gandhi
M. K. Narayanan

Hashim Abdul Halim (5 June 1935 – 2 November 2015) was an Indian communist and politician who was speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from 1982 to 2011.

Life and career

Abdul Halim started his career as a practising lawyer. Abdul Halim's father, also named Abdul Halim, was one of the founders of the Communist Party of India in Bengal. He was also an alderman at the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, his uncle, M. Ishaque was a member of the Congress Party and a freedom fighter. He has also served as the chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and president of the World Federation of United Nations Association.[3]

A member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of West Bengal for the first time in 1977. Thereafter, he served in the assembly for six terms, from 1977 to 2011. He was the minister for Judicial Affairs in the Government of West Bengal from 1977 to 1982 and subsequently served as speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1982 to 2011. He was the MLA for Amdanga constituency from 1977 to 2006, when he shifted his constituency to the Entally constituency. He was the MLA from Entally until 2011. He has served in numerous departments and committees of West Bengal. Abdul Halim has also represented West Bengal at numerous seminars in India and abroad. Abdul Halim was the longest-serving speaker of any legislative assembly in India, serving for a consecutive 29 years from 6 May 1982 to May 2011.[2] After the 2011 elections in West Bengal, Abdul Halim was replaced by Biman Banerjee as the Speaker of the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha.

Abdul Halim held a master's degree in commerce, a bachelor's degree in law and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Soka University, Tokyo. He was married and had four children. His son, Fuad Halim, was the CPI(M) candidate for the Ballygunge constituency in the 2011 West Bengal elections, but lost to Trinamool Congress' Subrata Mukherjee by 41,000 votes.

Abdul Halim died on 2 November 2015 in Kolkata at the age of 80.[4]

Notes and References

  1. http://www.mapsofindia.com/west-bengal/legislature/speaker.html Speaker of West Bengal
  2. http://legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in/States%5Cwestbengal%5Cspeaker.htm Shri Hashim Abdul Halim, MLA
  3. http://www.drfuadhalim.in/ Dr. Fuad Halim | Home Page
  4. Web site: Former West Bengal assembly speaker Hashim Abdul Halim died in Kolkata. PrepSure.com. 5 January 2016. 2 February 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160202072329/http://www.prepsure.com/former-west-bengal-assembly-speaker-hashim-abdul-halim-died-in-kolkata/. dead.