Calcutta, March 15: Jyoti Basu joined the CPM’s partners in condemning the police firing in Nandigram during a stormy meeting of the Left Front this evening.

The CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc demanded withdrawal of the massive police force from Nandigram. A formal resolution made it clear the allies could not share the blame for the “blunder” in the name of collective responsibility of the government.

The partners, who have decided to work as an informal front within the Left Front, threatened to leave the government if the CPM continued its “one-party rule”.

Reacting to this, Basu warned his party that it could not win elections alone and asked chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to honour the coalition dharma. Bhattacharjee, industry minister Nirupam Sen and CPM leaders Benoy Konar and Madan Ghosh were present at the two-hour meeting.

Left Front chairman and CPM state secretary Biman Bose said the meeting had been “adjourned” for the day and would be resumed on Saturday.

The chief minister had spoken to CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan at the CPI office before the front meeting.

“I was told that some people were shot from the back. This means the police opened fire when the villagers were fleeing. Where was the need for so much firing when none of the policemen sustained any bullet injury?” a front leader quoted Basu as saying.

According to the allies, the former chief minister felt the governor’s public expression of anguish was tantamount to “no-confidence in the government”.

Basu reportedly said the CPM and the government were “lacking in the spirit of collective leadership that had guided both earlier”.

“Arrogance and indecent behaviour and an individualistic trend will not help us win over friends,’’ he was quoted as saying.

The meeting began with Bose quoting from a report of the CPM’s East Midnapore unit, explaining how the situation in Nandigram had deteriorated since January 3.

However, Forward Bloc veteran Asoke Ghosh dubbed it a partisan report and asked Bose to behave like the Left Front chairman.

“We can’t accept that the police of the Left Front government would kill villagers — men and women. Who will take the responsibility of this sin? If the CPM wants to run its one-party rule without bothering to consult allies on major issues, we will have to think about leaving the government,’’ he said.