The new Bengal tiger
The family man
In an edition of the Bengali magazine Alokpat, Anjan Basu wrote how Bhattacharya once asked a journalist friend to pay him for an article he had written. Those were troubled times for Bhattacharya. He had resigned from the government after differences with then chief minister Jyoti Basu.
On getting the money, Bhattacharya was almost in tears.
The future chief minister said, recalled Basu, 'I want to give this money to my mother who not only lost her husband, my father, recently but also all her belongings in a theft. With this money, she will buy my wife and daughter clothes for (Durga) Puja.'
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Also See: Elections in forgotten India