Manik Sarkar is an Indian communist politician who served as the Chief Minister of Tripura from March 1998 to March 2018. He is a Politburo Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). In March 2008, he was sworn in as leader of Left Front, the Tripura coalition government. In assembly elections held in 2013, he became the chief minister for the fourth consecutive time. Currently, he serves as the Leader of Opposition in Tripura Legislative Assembly. His affidavit for the 2018 Tripura Assembly election revealed that he is the chief minister with the least possessions among all his counterparts in India. Early life and background Manik Sarkar was born into a middle-class family. His father, Amulya Sarkar, worked as a tailor, while his mother, Anjali Sarkar, was a State and later Provincial government employee. Sarkar became active in student movements in his student days, and in 1968, at the age of 19, he became a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was a candidate of the Students' Federation of India throughout his academic life at MBB College, from where he graduated with a B. Com. degree. During his first year at the college there came the turbulent times of the food movement of 1967, campaigning against the policy of the then Congress government of Tripura, and Sarkar threw himself headlong into the related student struggle. His vigorous role in this mass movement led him to join the Communists. Due to his early political exposure, he also became the General Secretary of the MBB College Student Union and was also made the Vice President of the Students' Federation of India. In 1972, at the early age of 23, he joined the State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Political career Six years after being selected in the CPI (M) State Committee, Sarkar was included in the party state Secretariat in the year 1978. This was also the year when the first Left Front government had taken control in Tripura. In 1980, at the age of 31, he was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Agartala constituency. This was the start of Manik Sarkar's leadership in his state. At around the same time, he was appointed the Chief Whip of the CPI (M). His success as the Member of the Legislative Assembly returned in 1983, when he was elected to the Assembly