Ashok Ghosh's death will leave vacuum for Left: President

New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday condoled the death of freedom fighter and All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) leader Ashok Ghosh, saying the the Left movement will find his absence a vacuum difficult to fill. "Ashok Ghosh played a vital role in the formation of the first and second United Front government consisting of Bangla Congress, Forward Bloc, LSS (Lok Sabha Sangh), CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist), CPI (Communist Party of India), RSP. (Revolutionary Socialist Party).

"The working class movement and Left movement in the nation will find a vacuum difficult to fill," Mukherjee said in his message to Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas. "Ghosh was a freedom fighter, senior-most West Bengal left leader and a rare politician. He never aspired to be a member of legislature or to be a minister, though he made several Forward Bloc leaders as MLAs, MPs and ministers from Bengal for many years," he added. Mukherjee also noted that in conformity with the political traditions of pre-independence days, Ghosh lived a "spartan life" and did not marry. "He spent most of his life in the party office." Ghosh, West Bengal`s senior most Left leader and state secretary of the Forward Bloc since 1951, died on Thursday.