Manik Sarkar becomes Tripura CM for 4th time

Agartala (IANS): Manik Sarkar assumed office as Tripura Chief Minister for a record fourth successive term at the head of India's only Communist government, the defender of the red bastion in a strategically located state that was not too long ago in the grip of ethnic unrest and secessionist militancy. He is probably India's only Chief Minister who does not own a home, car or bank balance worth mentioning. He does not even have a mobile phone and has never used the red beacon on his official car and washes his own clothes every morning. India's second longest serving communist Chief Minister after West Bengal's Jyoti Basu (June 1977-Nov 2000), Sarkar, 64, led a coalition of the CPM and the CPI to a huge electoral win in Tripura, the only state the Communists remain in power after their electoral defeats in their long-held bastions of West Bengal and Kerala in the last national election. Tripura Governor D Y Patil administered the oath of office to the 64-year-old Left leader and his council of ministers at a function at the Raj Bhavan here on Wednesday afternoon. Popularly known as 'Manik Da' among his partymen and others, he was known as a firebrand leader here since early 1970s who espoused popular causes. Born at Udaipur in South Tripura on January 22, 1949, in a lower middle-class family, Sarkar's father Amulya Sarkar was a tailor and his mother Anjali Sarkar was an employee of the state Health Department. His wife Panchali Bhatacherjee was an officer of the Central Social Welfare Department. Chief Minister since 1998, Sarkar, who has a bachelor of commerce degree from Calcutta University, is known as an honest man with a Spartan lifestyle.