It is with profound grief that we inform you of the passing of Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya ‘Shambhuji’ (7 March 1942 – 30 October 2026), Polit Bureau member and one of the founding leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. He was also the founding editor of ML Update and was in charge of the Party’s Central Organisation Department.
Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya passed away on October 30, 2026, at a hospital in Patna, Bihar, at the age of 84, after undergoing treatment for cancer.
Red Salute to Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya!
EDITORIAL
Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya, the last member of the historic three-member Central Committee founded on the second martyrdom anniversary of Comrade Charu Mazumdar, is no more. His two comrades-in-arms from that reorganised CC left us long back. Comrade Jauhar (Subrata Dutt), the second General Secretary after Comrade Charu Mazumdar, had died a martyr in Bhojpur on 29 November, 1975. Comrade Vinod Mishra who steered the party after Comrade Jauhar's martyrdom also died prematurely on 18 December, 1998. For these fifty-two long years since 28 July, 1974, Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya kept guiding the party with his characteristic wisdom, selfless dedication, patience and tenacity. We will now miss our guardian and his guiding presence.
So much has changed in these five decades. In 1974 Comrade Jauhar, VM and Raghu (that was the formal name Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya was known by during the underground days of the party) picked up the threads against the backdrop of extreme confusion and chaos within the movement and severe repression of the state. Comrade Charu Mazumdar's last words - keep the party alive, uphold the people's interests as the supreme interest of the party and forge broad-based unity to combat the severe repression of the state - became the guideline for the reorganised centre of the revolutionary communist movement. Against heavy odds, this small centre nurtured the movement and placed it firmly on a solid all-India foundation. Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya looked after the organisation in Bihar through those crucial formative years from 1974 to 1980.
Here we must also remember the legendary trio from Bhojpur's Ekwari village - Comrades Jagdish Mahto (Master Saheb), Ram Naresh Ram and Rameshwar Yadav. Under their inspiring leadership a bold militant anti-feudal resistance had started striking deep roots in the plains of Shahabad and the adjoining Magadh region. The awakening and assertion of the predominantly Dalit oppressed poor had even raised the call for Harijanistan (Gandhi's 'harijan' term was more widely used back then in feudal Bihar than the Amedkarite nomenclature of Dalit). The fusion of the spirit of Naxalbari and the energy of Ekwari propelled the reorganised CPI(ML) rapidly forward. Of the legendary 'Ekwari three' pioneers, Comrade Jagdish Master was killed on 10 December 1972 when the upsurge of the oppressed poor was still in its early stage. Comrade Rameshwar was martyred in an encounter with the police at Sona Tola in Sahar on 14 January 1975.Comrade Ram Naresh Ram lived on becoming Secretary of the party's Bihar unit in 1980 and, after being elected as CPI(ML)’s MLA for Sahar, serving as leader of the party's legislature wing in the Bihar Assembly from 1995 till his demise on 26 October 2010.
The 1980s witnessed great expansion of the revolutionary peasant movement of Bihar for social dignity, land rights and living wages. Similar struggles erupted in several pockets across the country. With the formation of the Indian People's Front as an open mass organization the echo of this anti-feudal awakening in Bihar and beyond found an inspiring all-India resonance. Under the banner of IPF the disenfranchised Dalit and oppressed caste toiling people of Bihar began exercising their right to vote in real life. In the Lok Sabha elections of November 1989 the fighting poor of Bhojpur created history by exercising their right to vote and sending agricultural labour leader Comrade Rameshwar Prasad to the Lok Sabha from Ara. Along with Comrades Vinod Mishra and Ram Naresh Ram, Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya was a key architect of this great political assertion of the revolutionary peasant movement.
The 1990s however began on a different note. The BJP and the RSS launched an aggressive campaign, triggering riots and bloodbaths in the name of 'Rath Yatra', eventually demolishing the 16th century Babri Masjid in broad daylight in brazen violation of the Constitution and the commitment made by the UP government to the Supreme Court. This happened just two weeks before the Fifth Congress of CPI(ML) was to commence in Kolkata. The import of the Babri Masjid demolition was not lost on the party. The Fifth Congress sensed the growing threat of communal fascism in India, and the party resolved to come overground and fight from the front. With it came the new challenge of building the party's new office system and organisational structure. Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya took the responsibility of setting up the party's new central office in Delhi. On 28 July 2012, the office acquired its current identity as Charu Bhawan.
From steering the party's recovery after the severe setback of the 1970s to shaping its transition to a vibrant communist party and preparing it for the challenging current phase of anti-fascist resistance, Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya had become a living symbol of the party's continuity and adaptability, unity and stability, consolidation and maturity/sagacity, amidst all the ups and downs of an ever-changing situation and the challenges posed by the intensification of fascist aggression in the Modi era. Before joining the party as a fulltime organiser, Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya was an employee with the public sector Heavy Engineering Corporation in Ranchi. In a period of setback for the movement when the state was boastfully writing the obituary of the CPI(ML) and some confused and disheartened revolutionaries had indeed begun to retreat, Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya had stepped forward as a professional revolutionary. This stubborn resolve and stamina defined his entire communist life. Despite battling cancer in the last few years, he remained fully involved in the party's everyday activities. Even in hospital he was keenly watching the Gen Z protests and the energetic courageous role of AISA comrades. Till the last moment when he could talk, he was only talking about strengthening the party organisation and increasing the party's role.
Adieu Comrade Shambhuji (Shambhuji is the name Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya has been most widely known by to comrades across India). Rest in power! Your beloved party will do all it can to fulfill your unfinished mission.
