Former Finance Minister of West Bengal Ashok Mitra died in Kolkata on Tuesday, Anandabazar Patrika reported. He was 90. Mitra had been suffering from age-related ailments for the past few days.

Mitra, who was the first finance minister of the Left Front government that ruled West Bengal for over three decades, was born in Dhaka in 1928. He completed his masters degree in economics from Banaras Hindu University, and received his doctorate from Rotterdam University in the Netherlands.

He then went on to work for the United Nations and the World Bank for two years, but soon left to join Jyoti Basu’s Cabinet. However, he resigned from his position in 1986 after differences in opinion with Basu. A few years later, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Though he was not active in politics after quitting the government, Mitra was an influential social and political commentator, writing newspaper columns on a variety of domestic and international political matters. He often did not hesitate to take on the Left government, and vociferously criticised the government and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) after the Nandigram episode in 2007.