Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, a veteran communist who wooed capital for industry

Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.

The CPI(M) stalwart - a quintessential Bengali 'bhadralok' with an incorruptible image - will be ironically remembered also for the fall of the 34-year-old Left regime in the state in 2011.

He oversaw the end of an era in which he helmed the longest democratically elected communist government but failed to lead the Left Frong to victory for the eighth time in a row in the highly politically polarised state.

Bhattacharjee who died on Thursday in his Kolkata home was 80. He left behind his wife and a daughter, who has declared to be undergoing gender change.

Bhattacharjee, who was the seventh chief minister of the state, pushed hard to shed his party's anti-industry image and promote industrialisation to breathe new life into Bengal's