Sheikh Hasina leaves Dhaka to attend Basu's funeral

I / Dhaka January 19, 2010, 12:25 IST

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today left for Kolkata along with several Cabinet ministers to attend the funeral of Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu.

Ruling Awami League led Grand Alliance partners Jatiyo Party chief and former President H M Ershad, Worker's Party chief Rashed Khan, Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal president Hassanul Haque Inu were among others accompanying Hasina at an air Force jet that flew off to Kolkata.

Deputy leader of the House Sayeda Sajeda Chowdhury, agriculture minister Matia Chowdhury, foreign minister Dipu Moni and several other Awami League leaders are also travelling with Hasina to pay homage to Basu, who had ancestral link to Bangladesh.

Basu, who died on Sunday at 95, was the longest-serving Chief Minister of West Bengal for 23 years from 1977 at the head of CPI(M)-headed Left Front government.

Basu's ancestral home is Barodi village in Sonargaon in Narayangunj district adjoining Dhaka. Basu's father Nishikanta Basu hailed from that village and the Marxist patriarch's desire to visit his ancestral home remained unfulfilled.