Calcutta, Nov. 18: Two hundred cops in and around a five-star hotel, 400 uniformed personnel elsewhere, one fire engine and several uprooted bushes seem to have helped Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee smooth some ruffled feathers of Ram Vilas Paswan.

Security usually seen in Maoist-infested zones, not in ritzy hotels, greeted the Union steel minister back to Bengal today, 16 days after a landmine struck Paswan’s convoy and made him express incredulity at the chief minister’s decision to leave early then.

Over 200 plainclothesmen and uniformed personnel were posted in the vicinity of the venue for an event where deals for coal block development and iron ore supply were struck . Police sources said the headcount was more than that required for even the Z-plus category.

Shrubs and bushes behind the hotel, bordering the Salt Lake Stadium ground, were cleared, apparently to avoid a repeat of the November 2 blast that was triggered by using a long wire which snaked undetected across a paddy field.

A fire engine was stationed on the hotel premises, a precautionary measure usually taken when the chief minister attends open-air events.

Along with the hardware came the chief minister’s fulsome praise for Paswan. “This (the coal and ore pacts) was not possible without Paswan. I thank him on behalf of all of you. Whenever we were in trouble, we went to him. He has almost cleared the chemical hub (in Nayachar),” Bhattacharjee said.

Not content, the chief minister added: “He has come all the way. I thank him again.”

Delhi to Bengal is not such a long way but after the landmine blast and Paswan’s outburst, the distance must have appeared to have grown.

Paswan, who had said after the blast that he was “taken aback” by the chief minister’s early departure, gave a clean chit to Bhattacharjee.

“The CM had taken that incident very seriously. He was asking about it even today,” he said.

But Paswan was less effusive today than he was in Salboni on that Sunday a few hours before the blast. If the Union minister referred to Bhattacharjee as “krantikari (revolutionary) chief minister” then, he opted for a more prim and proper “adarniya (respected) Buddhababu”.

Neither did the Union minister let the West Midnapore administration off the hook. Referring to an initial briefing to the chief minister that a power line had fallen on the convoy, Paswan said: “If they say to the CM that it was a high-tension wire, then it was a serious fault.”

The chief minister left first today, too. But industries minister Nirupam Sen, who had also left early on November 2, stayed back to keep Paswan company at lunch.