Buddhadeb's father, Nepalchandra, did not enter into the priesthood and was involved with the family publication, Saraswat Library, devoted to selling Hindu religious material.

A former student of Sailendra Sircar Vidyalaya, Buddhadeb studied Bengali literature at the Presidency College, Kolkata, and secured his B.A.

However, he abruptly resigned from his position in September 1993, following differences with then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, regarding the functioning of the administration and the alleged issue of corruption.

[citation needed] Following the 1996 West Bengal election, Bhattacharjee was handed the responsibility of the home and police department, owing to the declining health of the elderly Chief Minister Basu.

[8] Bhattacharjee was elected Chief Minister of West Bengal and was sworn in in a solemn ceremony at Raj Bhawan.

[10][11] Bhattacharjee's tenure saw major incidents of violence perpetrated by the cadres of the ruling CPI(M) like the Chhoto Angaria massacre, the Netai killings and the Dhantala case.

[13] Notable among the invited projects was that of the production of the world's cheapest car, the Tata Nano,[14] in Singur, a small town near Kolkata.

Other notable proposals included the country's largest integrated steel plant in Salboni by the Jindal group.

[citation needed] However, his plans were perceived negatively, and his party, along with its front partners, suffered heavy losses in the 2009 Indian general election.

In the 2011 state assembly election, he was defeated at Jadavpur by the former Chief Secretary of his own government, and the Trinamool congress candidate Manish Gupta by 16,684 votes.

[citation needed] Events during his tenure as Chief Minister included attempts to industrialize West Bengal thwarted by the TATA's Tata Motors leaving Bengal in the face of the joint protests of the Trinamool Congress,[17] Socialist Unity Centre of India, and Indian National Congress,[18] the land acquisition dispute in Singur, the Nandigram incident,[19] and the Netai incident.

[20] In January 2006 the Supreme Court of India issued notices to Left Front Government ministers including Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and others in relation to land allotments made in the Salt Lake City township in Kolkata.

He was criticized not only by opposition parties (such as the Trinamool Congress, INC, PDS, BJP, CPI(ML)L, CRLI and others) and other Left Front coalition allies like CPI, RSP and AIFB, who threatened to back out from the ministry on this issue, but also by his mentor and the state's former chief minister, Jyoti Basu On 15 March 2007, Basu criticized Bhattacharjee for failing to restrain the police in Nandigram.

In 2019, he made an attempt to attend a mega-rally at Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata, however, due to breathing difficulties he could not appear on the stage and remained seated in his car.

He said a call was made to his residence earlier in the day, while adding there is no provision of taking consent for giving Padma awards.