Surjya Kanta Mishra


Surjya Kanta Misra is an Indian politician, belonging to the Communist Party of India. He served as Minister of Health and Minister in-charge of Land & Land Reforms, Panchayats & Rural Development in the Left Front governments of West Bengal and is the Secretary of the Communist Party of India, West Bengal State Committee. After the 2011 assembly election he was elected as Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in May 2011. He was inducted into the politburo of the CPI following the death of veteran leader M.K. Pandhe in 2011. In 2015, he was elected as the state secretary of CPI in West Bengal, succeeding Biman Bose.

Political career

Surjya Kanta Misra became a member of CPI in 1973. He unsuccessfully contested the 1977 assembly election from the Narayangarh. He was elected as the Chairperson of the Medinipur Zila Parishad in 1978 and served until 1991. In 1991 he was elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. In 1991, he was inducted into the state cabinet as a cabinet minister. Within his capacity as a cabinet minister he served in the Land & Land Reforms, Panchayats & Rural Development departments. He has also served as Minister-In-Charge of Health and Family Welfare, Biotechnology. He remained in the state cabinet till 2011. After the defeat of the CPI in the 2011 assembly election he was elected as Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in May 2011. He became a state committee member in 1988 and a state secretariat member in 1995. He was elected to the Central committee of the party in 2002. He was elevated to the Politburo of the party in 2012. In 2015, he succeeded Biman Bose as the secretary of the West Bengal state committee. He is also a member of the all India working committee of All India Kisan Sabha. He was defeated in the 2016 assembly election as a candidate in Narayangarh.

Personal life

He is a qualified doctor but voluntarily gave up his practice after joining politics. He is married to Usha Misra. The couple has two daughters. He participated as an Indian medical volunteer at the time of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.