Veteran Indian communist leader Jyoti Basu has died at the age of 95.

印度资深共产主义领袖乔迪·巴苏逝世，享年95岁。

Jyoti Basu ruled West Bengal for 23 years

He led the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and was chief minister of West Bengal state from 1977 to 2000.

Jyoty Basu was credited with restoring恢复，重建 stability to the state, and bringing in land reforms. He died in Calcutta after a long illness.

In 1996 he was offered to lead the federal government as PM in a left-of-centre coalition联合，结合, but his party chose to support it from the outside.

Mr Basu described his party's decision decision not to join the coalition¹ as a "historic blunder大错."

The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says he was easily India's most respected communist leader.

Our correspondent says Jyoti Basu leaves behind a controversial and mixed legacy². Though he undertook crucial land reforms in West Bengal state and empowered the peasantry农民, the state slid into industrial stagnation停滞 and was wracked严重伤害 by radical⁴ trade unionism under his rule.

Businesses fled West Bengal, unemployment rose, and industrial unrest was rife⁵, our correspondent says.

Jyoty Basu was often described as a Fabian费边主义 socialist⁶ rather than an orthodox正统的，惯常的 communist.