Although the state was shut down on Wednesday by Mamata Banerjee’s protest call against “violence” unleashed by the CPI(M) at Nandigram, the ruling party chose to term the bandh a flop. Barring a stray incident in Kolkata, there was no violence during the day.
The CPI(M)’s Alimuddin Street state headquarters was busy throughout the day monitoring reports from various parts of the state, but had realized in the morning that the response to this Trinamool Congress bandh was much better than the ones in the recent past.
Immediately thereafter, key leaders began spouting the party line: the people had rejected Mamata’s call “paralyse” the state.
Biman Bose, state secretary of the CPI(M), said: “Mamata-ar achal poisha chole-ni” (Mamata’s dud coin did not work), punning on “achal” to refer to the Trinamool leader’s use of the term instead of bandh.
“What you saw closed was closed because they used force,” Bose said.
His argument: buses and trams plied in the city, while pre-harvest work carried on in the villages.
But even before Bose’s comments, CITU state president Shyamal Chakraborty called a press meeting around noon to announce that industry had functioned.
“In the city, they forced shops and markets to close down,” Chakraborty said, referring to the Trinamool.
Sources said Alimuddin Street had told its cadres to actively oppose any attempt to paralyse the state, but the cadres ultimately decided to avoid confrontations. First, because this is the festival season. Second, because the local level leaders did not want any clashes that would give the opposition another handle to use against the party.