Agartala,  CPI-M Tripura state Secretary and veteran Journalist Gautam Das died at a Kolkata Hospital on Thursday following Covid-19 complications, doctors and party sources said. He was 70.

Das is survived by daughter Swagata Das and wife Tapati Sen. Das' body will be brought back to Agartala and is likely to be cremated here on Friday.

A central committee member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Das tested positive for Covid-19 last month and after a brief treatment in Agartala he was shifted to a private hospital in Kolkata where he breathed his last early on Thursday morning.

Das, who was the founder member of the Agartala Press Club, was the founder (1979) Editor of the CPI-M's mouthpiece "Daily Desher Katha" and he held the post until 2015.

Condoling the death, CPI-M politburo in a statement said that since his school days Das was active in politics as part of the student movement in Tripura. In 2018, Das became the CPI-M state secretary and was also very active in the cultural movement and was founder secretary of the Tripura Sanskriti Samanway Kendra, a Left supported literary-cultural body.

Das joined the Party in 1968 and became a member of the Tripura State Committee in 1986 and elected to the Central Committee at the 21st Congress of the party in 2015.

The CPI-M in a statement said that his family had roots in Chittagong and he had great attachment to Bangladesh. This helped him maintain cordial relations with the political parties in the neighbouring country, on behalf of the CPI-M.

"Das led a very simple life and was a comrade of high loyalty and commitment to the party's cause. His departure, coming at a time when the party is valiantly facing vicious and violent attacks in Tripura, is a big loss," the CPI-M politburo statement said.