Saturday, December 25 2004 11:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) today (Dec 25, 2004) deeply mourned the death of veteran Marxist and former Tripura Chief Minister Nripen Chakraborty whom the party restored the membership after a nine year expulsion only two days back recognising his contribution to the communist movement.

CPM leaders including Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu paid glowing tributes to Chakraborty and recalled his contribution to the Communist movement and the party's growth in the North-eastern State of Tripura where he was Chief Minister for two terms since 1978.

"We dropped Nripen babu from the party for political reasons but we restored him the party membership considering his contribution the party," said CPM politburo member and West Bengal State secretary Anil Biswas.

Chakraborty, a former CPM politburo and Central Committee member was expelled from the party in 1995 on charge of breach of party discipline as he accused senior leaders including Jyoti Basu of deviating from the party's ideology.

Biswas told reporters that CPM looked after Chakraborty even after his expulsion from the party, adding, "We took care of his health".

The veteran Marxist was flown to Kolkata from Agartala for treatment on December 23 with problems in heart, pancreas and neurological ones and was admitted to State-run SSKM hospital where he expired early today.

Biswas said the body of Chakraborty would be brought to CPM State party headquarter in Kolkata at 11:30 hrs (IST) to enable leaders to pay their last respect before being taken to Agaratala for cremation there.