West Bengal Socialist Party was a political party in the Indian state of West Bengal. WBSP was formed when the Bengali socialists in the then Janata Party split in the beginning of the 1980s (the other faction became the Democratic Socialist Party). WBSP was a part of Left Front. The party leader Kiranmoy Nanda was the Fisheries Minister in the West Bengal government.
The party upheld in the ideals of Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia and Narendra Dev.
In 1990s, the party merged with the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Kiranmoy Nanda became one of the national secretaries of SP. But due to the differences between SP and the Communists in April, 1999 over supporting Congress in forming a government after the defeat of the Vajpayee government in the trust vote, WBSP was resurrected once again.
In the state assembly elections 2001 WBSP launched four candidates, supported by Left Front. All four got elected. In total the party received 246 407 votes. In 2005 municipal polls in Kolkata, WBSP contested 2 seats (ward no. 55 and 63) as a part of LF. It lost in both seats.
In the 2006 West Bengal state assembly election, WBSP retained its four seats. Senor leaders of the party included Moni Pal and Jonmejay Ojha. The party has influences in parts of East Midnapore, Malda, Nadia and Murshidabad.
In 2008 Panchayat Elections, it has secured a zilla parishad seat in Malda. It has won 2 municipality seats in the Krishnagar municipality in 2008.
In April 2010, WBSP merged with the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh Yadav. Kiranmoy Nanda again became a general secretary of SP.
Famous quotes containing the words west, bengal, socialist and/or party:
“The convent, which belongs to the West as it does to the East, to antiquity as it does to the present time, to Buddhism and Muhammadanism as it does to Christianity, is one of the optical devices whereby man gains a glimpse of infinity.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“Warmest climes but nurse the cruelest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“I nearly always find, when I ask a vegetarian if he is a socialist, or a socialist if he is a vegetarian, that the answer is in the affirmative.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death. ... “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan,”controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.””
—George Orwell (1903–1950)