About Manik Sarkar

Manik Sarkar is the incumbent and 9^th Chief Minister of the North-Eastern Indian state of Tripura. The longest serving chief minister of Tripura, Sarkar was first appointed as the CM of the state in 1998 and has not been away from the post ever since. He is widely regarded as the 'Most Honest' and 'Most Clean' chief minister. Sarkar is a politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Early Life and Education of Manik Sarkar

Manik Sarkar was born on 22 January, 1949 in Radhakishorepur, Udaipur, Tripura into a middle-class family. Sarkar's mother, Anjali Sarkar, was a government employee in Tripura while his father, Amulya Sarkar, was a tailor. Sarkar graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Maharaja Bir Bikram College in Agartala, Tripura.

Personal Life of Manik Sarkar

Manik Sarkar is married to Panchali Bhattacharya, who has been an employee with Central Social Welfare Board and retired in 2011. Manik Sarkar enjoys a distinguished reputation as a chief minister as he is the lone head of the government amongst all the states in India who owns no house or car of his own. His wife has no personal security guards and does not use any mode of transport that is dedicated in service of the chief minister and his family.

Political Career of Manik Sarkar

Manik Sarkar joined the students’ movement in his college at the age of 19 in 1968. His initial political exposure and experience led him to be appointed as the general secretary of the Students' Federation of India at the Maharaja Bir Bikram College. During the 1967 Food Movement, Manik Sarkar plunged himself straight into the movement, campaigning against the policies of the then ruling Congress government in Tripura.

At the young age of 23, Manik Sarkar joined the State Committee of the CPI (M) in 1972. Six years down the line, Sarkar was inducted into the party secretariat in the year 1978 when the communist party got a chance to rule a government in Tripura for the very first time.

In 1980, he was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Tripura, representing the Agartala constituency. He was then appointed as the Chief Whip of the CPI (M). Sarkar repeated his success in the Assembly elections and won from Kishannagar, Agartala in 1983. Manik Sarkar's performance and expertise was acknowledged and he was rewarded with the position of the State Secretary of the CPI (M) when the party rose to power in 1993.

In 1998, Manik Sarkar was appointed as a member of the politburo, the premier policy making and executive body in a communist party. There was no looking back from thereon for Sarkar. The same year, he was appointed for the CM's post for the very first time. Since then Sarkar has emerged victorious in every subsequent Assembly election and has been elected as the Chief Minister for four consecutive times. This gives Manik Sarkar a place in the longest serving chief ministers in India club.

A unique trait of Manik Sarkar's reign as Tripura's Chief Minister has been that he donates his entire official salary to his party and gets Rs 5,000 per month as his allowance. Sarkar thus draws the most minimum amount of salary amongst all the Chief Ministers in India and thus is often regarded as the 'Cleanest and Poorest' CM in India. Even his critics hail him as a corruption-free figure. According to his affidavit filed for the 2013 Tripura Assembly elections, Manik Sarkar’s bank deposits amounted to a maximum of Rs 16,120.
EBVD13.01.2015

Last Updated on 10 June, 2016.

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