Dipankar Bhattacharya: The revolutionary statistician in Left's Bihar rise

Dipankar Bhattacharya is seen as one of the most rooted among the top communist leaders in the country, lives out of his party’s offices, and is more likely to explain his political position in accessible Hindi, English or Bengali than utter inscrutable phrases about dialectical materialism.

Bhattacharya is the general secretary, or the chief, of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation – popularly known simply as Bhakapa Maalay, or just Maalay.

Curiosity about him, and his party, has increased after the “ML” won 12 of the 19 seats it contested in the Bihar Assembly polls, and lost another three by narrow