Kolkata:
CPI(M) MLA from Basirhat North constituency Mostafa bin Quasem today allegedly leapt to his death from the third floor of the MLA's Hostel building here.
"The MLA jumped from the third floor and fell on a tin shed. He is dead," police sources said. He was 80.
Following the incident, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the spot.
Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee told reporters that a suicide note had been found on the deceased.
He said that the MLA, who was first elected to the West Bengal Assembly in 1977 and then again from 1991 to 2011, had been ill due to kidney-related problems for some time.
Quasem was among the party MLAs who had arrived here from their constituencies for the election of the West Bengal Assembly Speaker tomorrow.
With Quasem's death, the number of CPI(M) MLAs in the assembly has gone down to 39 and that of the opposition Left Front to 61.