Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

Calcutta, May 14: Around 10 this morning, an elderly gentleman in a white dhoti-kurta stepped out of his Palm Avenue home, walked a few paces and got into an ordinary white Ambassador.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had set off for his party headquarters at Alimuddin Street, but it was a lonely drive.

No flashing red bulb, no wailing siren to clear the way, nor the usual fleet of four security vehicles — a pilot car in front followed by two escort cars and a tail car at the end.

Only two Special Branch cars trailed the outgoing chief minister of Bengal, but they followed at a distance of over 200 metres — so far away you couldn’t make out if they were shadowing a VIP.

There was enough space for several vehicles to come between Bhattacharjee’s Ambassador and the Special Branch cars.

His car was not even bullet-proof. But that was how Bhattacharjee had wanted it.

On Friday afternoon, around 1.40, soon after returning home from Raj Bhavan where he had gone to submit his resignation, Bhattacharjee had called the police officers escorting him and asked them to withdraw the “bullet-proof car”.

“Aapnader aar ashtey hobey na. Aamar ekhon aar ei shob dorkar nei (You don’t need to come any more. I don’t need all this any more),” he reportedly told his personal security officer.

The PSO immediately called up his superiors in the Special Branch. After a meeting, led by joint police commissioner (Intelligence), it was decided that Bhattacharjee’s wish would be respected and the security ring, along with the bullet-proof car, withdrawn.

“The front and the tail car, along with the other covers, have been withdrawn in keeping with Bhattacherjee’s wish. But he remains a Z-plus-category person and so a car will continue to shadow him from a distance,” said a senior Special Branch officer.

The difference between Z and Z-plus categories was primarily a bullet-proof car, security experts said, adding that other aspects, like the number of security personnel and cars in a convoy, remain the same.

In Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, Pranab Mukherjee and Subhas Ghising fall in the Z-plus category, though the Trinamul Congress chief has so far refused a bullet-proof car.

CPM insiders said that soon after the Left Front’s rout, Bhattacharjee had requested the party to provide him with a car so that he didn’t have to use the government’s bullet-proof vehicle. The party bosses agreed and sent him a white Ambassador (WB 06 4053) when he wanted to visit the party headquarters yesterday afternoon. Bhattacharjee returned in the same car around 9.15pm.

“If someone refuses, we can’t force him to take a bullet-proof car. You can try and reason with him. But if he insists — as Mamata Banerjee insisted on not taking a bullet-proof car — then the matter is reported to the state committee that reviews VIP security and also to the Union home ministry,” a police officer said.

Bhattacharjee had also reportedly asked for the police picket outside his residence to be withdrawn, but that has not happened yet. Sources in Lalbazar said their bosses were not convinced it was the right time to withdraw the cover entirely. So the picket — made up of officers from the Special Branch and Special Action Force commandos — remains outside the Palm Avenue building, where former Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pradip Bhattacharjee also stays.

“It’s unlikely this force, posted outside his house, will be withdrawn till the new cabinet is sworn in. The guard rail on the road leading to the house has been withdrawn though,” said an officer of Karaya police station, which covers the VIP zone. “The mandatory patrolling around his house will also gradually come down.”

Unlike Mamata, Bhattacharjee seldom travelled without his bullet-proof car. The few occasions he did were when he campaigned across Jadavpur this time.

The car was brought from the Ordinance Factory, Medak, in Andhra Pradesh, soon after Bhattacharjee was sworn in chief minister in 2000. The decision followed alerts from intelligence agencies, which put him in the Z-plus category.

A reluctant Bhattacharjee had given in following persistent requests from senior security officials. In March 2006, after the Left’s victory in Bengal, a Rs 2-crore plan was drawn up to redo Bhattacharjee’s security.

Two years later, in November 2008, Bhattacharjee had a close shave in Salboni, West Midnapore, when a blast missed the car he was travelling in.