Political leaders in Bengal mourn Dasmunsi's death

Cutting across political lines, leaders in West Bengal today expressed grief over the death of senior Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.
State Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee said Dasmunsi had guided him during his formative years in politics. "I have many fond memories of Priyada. My formative years in politics were spent under his tutelage. It's a very sad day for me," state Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said.
Mukherjee, who was once a senior leader of the Congress, had joined the TMC in 2010. During the tumultuous days of student politics in the late sixties and the early seventies, Subrata Mukherjee and Dasmunsi were considered firebrand leaders of Bengal.

State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said it was Dasmunsi who had inspired him to join politics.
"During our student days, we always wanted to speak like Priyada did. He was our idol in student politics. He had a charismatic personality," Chatterjee said.
Leader of opposition and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan mourned Dasmunsi's death and said it was an irreparable loss to Bengal and national politics.

Echoing similar sentiments, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said Dasmunsi was one leader who could take everybody along with him, keeping aside petty differences.
State BJP secretary Ritesh Tiwari remembered the veteran Congress leader as an inspiration for political leaders of today.

There might have been differences of opinion, but he had always been an inspiration for a lot of political leaders of the recent times, Tiwari said in a Facebook post.
Senior Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, who was in coma for around 10 years, breathed his last at a New Delhi hospital today. He was 72.