AGARTALA, Aug 14 (TIWN): The 94th birth anniversary of poet Sukanta Bhattacharya has been observed at Maharani Tulsibati Girls HS School with social distancing.

Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath inaugurated the main programme. This year, due to COVID0-19, the programme was shortened without making gathering.

Poet Sukanta Bhattacharya was born on 15 August 1926 at his maternal uncle's home in Kolkata. His paternal home was in Kotalipara in Faridpur district. His father, Nibaranchandra Bhattacharya, was a book trader in Kolkata.

Sukanta studied at Kamala Vidyamandir in Kolkata, and then at Beleghata Deshbandhu High School.

Along with Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, he was one of the key figures of modern Bengali poetry, despite the fact that most of his works had been in publication posthumously.

He has had a significant influence on poet Subhas Mukhopadhyay and composer Salil Chowdhury who set some of his popular poems to music.

The poetry of Sukanta Bhattacharya is characterised by rebel socialist thoughts, patriotism and humanism. Yet, it is characterised by romanticism as well.