Kolkata, January 17 2010: Jyoti Basu, Marxist legend and one of the tallest leaders of the Commmunist movement in India, died today losing his fortnight-long battle to pneumonia that led to complications and multi-organ failure.

Ninety five-year-old Basu, who held the record of being the longest-serving Chief Minister in the country and missed becoming the Prime Minister in 1996 because of his party, breathed his last at 11:47 am at the AMRI Hospital where he was admitted with pneumonia on January one.

Basu, who strode the political arena for over six decades and was a leading figure in uniting Opposition parties against the Congress in the 80s and 90s, is survived by son, Chandan, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.

His wife Kamal had died four years ago.

It was another matter in 2004 he influenced his party to give outside support to the Congress-led Government at the Centre.

The Communist veteran, who had stepped down as West Bengal Chief Minister in November 2000 after a 23-year tenure, had been in and out of hospital in the last two years.

His health had deteriorated in the last few days when he developed a multi-organ failure.

He was put on pace-maker and haemo-dialysis but he could never recover from the setback.

"I have a sad announcement to make Jyoti Basu is no more with us," an emotional Left Front chairman Biman Bose, who together with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee rushed to the hospital, said breaking the news.

Thousands of mourners thronged the roads as Basu's body was taken to Peace Haven, a private funeral parlour, where it will kept for people to pay homage.

He will be cremated on Tuesday.

His eyes, which he had donated, were removed by doctors of an eye hospital.

President, Vice President, Prime Minister and leaders across the entire political spectrum condoled Basu's demise hailing him as one of the legends of the communist movement in the country.

Home Minister P Chidambaram, who had visited the hospital in the morning, described Basu as a great patriot and a democrat.

The CPI(M), which he had founded along with several others in 1964 when the CPI split, expressed profound grief at his death and called him one of the tallest leaders of the Communiste movement in the country.

Basu, who was deputy Chief Minister twice in the United Front Governments of West Bengal in 1967 and 1970, was first elected MLA in 1952 and then continuously for 10 terms till 1996.He was the last surviving member of the 'Navratnas', the nine members of the first Polit Bureau.

Chandan, his wife Rakhi and Basu's granddaughters Payel, Doyel and Koyel were at the hospital.

Left Front Ministers, Pratim Chatterjee, Kiranmoy Nanda, Sudarshan Roychowdhury, Ranjit Kundu were also at the hospital this morning.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat, veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh and a host of Left Party leaders visited the hospital.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat was among other leaders who visited the hospital.

A pall of gloom descended on the city as soon as news of the Marxist patriarch's death spread with people turning up in hordes at the hospital to pay their last respects to the departed leader.

The road leading to the hospital at Salt Lake was closed to traffic by the police who were deployed in large numbers.

As a young barrister who embraced Communism, Basu showed remarkable pragmatism in a dogmatic party that prevented him from becoming Prime Minister at the height of coalition politics.

He got a chance to become Prime Minister of the United Front Government in 1996 but his party declined the offer.

Basu had described his party's decision of not accepting the Prime Ministership as a 'historic blunder', which was termed by the CPI(M) as his 'personal view'.

Paying glowing tributes to Basu, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was a powerful regional voice in the national political scene and had proved to be one of the most ablest administrators and politicians of independent India.

Describing Basu as a great leader, senior BJP leader LK Advani said, "though our ideologies were different, still, going by his greatness, I respect him and pay my tributes".

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said Basu was the "first and last chapter of the Left Front Government".

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee described him as a "people's leader".

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