Protesters shout slogans against Modi in Calcutta. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Calcutta, March 13: Nearly 1,000 activists of Left organisations today clashed with police outside Calcutta Club while protesting against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi?s visit here for a few hours to take part in a debate.

Shouting slogans ? ?Killer Modi go back? ? some in the crowd tried to jump on to the car carrying the BJP leader and stop him from entering the venue.

Earlier, a group of some 300 black flag-waving Youth Congress supporters gathered outside the airport, delaying Modi?s departure for the city, which also shelters Qutubuddin Ansari, the tailor who was a victim of the riots in Ahmedabad and became the face of Gujarat?s 2002 mayhem.

Outside Calcutta Club, the protesters burnt Modi?s effigy and hurled missiles at his car.

Baton-wielding policemen, led by deputy commissioner (south) Anuj Sharma and joint commissioner of police (armed police) Zulfikar Hasan, had ringed the club. They blocked the protesters, but no arrests were made.

The demonstration, continuing for over one-and-a-half hours since 5 pm, peaked when Modi was about to enter the club under heavy security cover. A battalion of BJP supporters appeared on the scene and tried to stand up to the advancing Left activists.

There was tension in the air when the groups demonstrating against and for Modi screamed: ?Modi, go back?, countered by ?Long live Modi?, scaring motorists and pedestrians away.

Officers in charge of four police stations and those from the detective department?s preventive wing were pressed into operation and the tension was defused.