Sudhindranath Kumar

Sudhindranath Kumar (died 1984) was an Indian politician, belonging to the Revolutionary Communist Party of India. He served as general secretary of the party 1960–1984, represented Howrah Central constituency in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and served as Food Minister of the state in 1969 and 1977–1982.

Kumar became the general secretary of the RCPI (Pannanlal Dasgupta group) at the All India Conference held in Howrah in 1960. He held the post until his death. As of 1963 he was listed as the editor of the monthly Marxism Today.

Kumar served as convenor of the United Front formed ahead of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, 1967. During the protests against the dismissal of the first United Front cabinet in 1967, Kumar was arrested under the Preventive Detention Act. After the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, 1969 Kumar was named Food and Supplies Minister in the second United Front state government. The Food Minister had been given to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the coalition government, but CPI(M) opted to name Kumar as its choice for the post. Kumar was seen as a CPI(M) protege at the time, Himmat magazine referred to him as the 'blue-eyed boy of Jyoti Basu'.

Kumar's tenure as minister was short and turbulent. The two elected RCPI state legislators, Anadi Das and M. Mokshed Ali, accused Kumar of having tried to coerce them to resign in order for Kumar to be able to contest their seats in a by-poll. In July 1969 Kumar expelled both of the RCPI legislators from RCPI, creating a split in the party. Around the same time two United Front member parties, the All India Forward Bloc and the Socialist Unity Centre of India, demanded Kumar's resignation. A June 1969 edition of Himmat reported that Kumar was about to lose his ministerial post. As the West Bengal Legislative Council was abolished in August 1969 (to which Kumar, in theory, had a chance to get elected) and none of the elected legislators had been willing to resign to enable Kumar to get elected, Kumar was forced to resign from his ministerial post.

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