Calcutta, Oct. 20: For every plan announced, there was an alternative plan.

And it was this alternative plan that police decided to use to outwit demonstrators ? almost all of whom eventually failed to turn up ? along the route taken by Benny Santoso on his arrival in the city.

First, the government had been repeatedly announcing that Santoso would land around 2 pm. That was not to be. A close circle of senior officials knew otherwise and they were sworn to secrecy.

Santoso and his small team of officials arrived in an eight-seater Cessna aircraft at 10.50 am, even as Mamata’s men were readying to get their act together. The administration whisked Santoso out of the aircraft and a convoy of 15 cars sped off towards the city.

Later in the day, Mamata admitted that her supporters had been “caught off guard”. “We were under the impression that the Salim Group people would come only around 2 pm and were preparing ourselves accordingly,” Mamata said. “If we knew that he would come much earlier, we would not have let them go that easily.”

On the route to the city, too, the administration had worked out different plans.

“While planning the security arrangements we had not anticipated that Mamata Banerjee’s party would put up such a weak show,” a senior official said. “We had prepared for major demonstrations on VIP Road, the route normally taken to reach the city. We knew around 11 am that that was not the case, but we did not want to take chances.”

Although elaborate security arrangements had been made along VIP Road, the convoy decided to take the New Town flyover through Rajarhat. It zoomed its way through with no protesters visible anywhere along the way.

Only near the approach to Salt Lake was a clutch of demonstrators by the wayside, feebly waving black flags. From there, it was an uninterrupted drive to the hotel.

Yesterday, home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy had announced that Santoso would stay at the Oberoi Grand. This was not entirely true. Reservations had been made at three hotels: the Oberoi Grand, ITC Sonar Bangla and Taj Bengal.

But it was decided that Santoso would first check in at Taj Bengal. Oberoi Grand was ruled out because the police had information that some Trinamul supporters had gathered in front of it (Santoso shifted there only at night). The Sonar Bangla option was not considered viable because Writers’ Buildings wanted to keep him in the jurisdiction of Calcutta police.

So, the convoy travelled down the Park Circus connector and up the AJC Bose Road flyover till it quickly turned into Taj Bengal. There was not a single demonstrator there; no one knew Benny Santoso would make this his first stop. The time: 11.50 am.