President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday condoled the death of freedom fighter and All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) leader Ashok Ghosh, saying the the Left movement will find his absence a vacuum difficult to fill.
"Ashok Ghosh played a vital role in the formation of the first and second United Front government consisting of Bangla Congress, Forward Bloc, LSS (Lok Sabha Sangh), CPI - M (Communist Party of India - Marxist), CPI (Communist Party of India), RSP. (Revolutionary Socialist Party).
"The working class movement and Left movement in the nation will find a vacuum difficult to fill, " Mukherjee said in his message to Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas.
"Ghosh was a freedom fighter, senior - most West Bengal left leader and a rare politician. He never aspired to be a member of legislature or to be a minister, though he made several Forward Bloc leaders as MLAs, MPs and ministers from Bengal for many years, " he added.
Mukherjee also noted that in conformity with the political traditions of pre - independence days, Ghosh lived a "spartan life" and did not marry. "He spent most of his life in the party office. "
Ghosh, West Bengal's senior most Left leader and state secretary of the Forward Bloc since 1951, died on Thursday.