Biman Bose at a rally on APC Road on Thursday

Calcutta, Sept. 20: CPM state secretary Biman Bose gloated this evening that the Bangla bandh was a “success”, but some party leaders worried that they had ended up batting for Mamata Banerjee by enforcing a shutdown on the very issues on which she had pulled out of the Centre.

“There were instances of Trinamul attacks on Left activists in some parts of the state today. However, today’s bandh was a success across the state,’’ Bose proudly told a news conference at Alimuddin Street.

But a CPM central committee leader said tonight there was no denying that the general strike coinciding with Mamata’s decision to pull out of the UPA would be seen as upholding her cause.

“We may have been protesting against the entry of FDI in retail for the past six years but by withdrawing support to the UPA on this issue, Trinamul has hijacked the issue. We merely batted for Mamata Banerjee today,” the leader said.

At Writers’ Buildings earlier in the day, Mamata had thanked the people of Bengal for “supporting” the bandh issues — FDI in retail, diesel price hike and the cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders — and said it was a matter of pride for Trinamul to have withdrawn support from the UPA on those issues.

“I thank Bengal’s Maa Mati Manush and the people of the country for supporting these causes, the issues are genuine. People all over the country have supported it. In Bengal, we were the first to take up the issue. We have withdrawn support on this issue and are proud of it,’’ the chief minister said in the afternoon.

Everyone was backing the strike “because the issues are genuine”, she said.

“If the Centre commits a wrong, political parties will hit the streets. I cannot blame them. Forget which party has called the bandh. But our party does not support bandhs,’’ Mamata said.

The chief minister said she could have “forcefully stopped the bandh like the CPM used to do by deploying its cadres” but chose not to. “We did not want to go into any confrontational politics,” she said.

The conspicuous absence of Trinamul cadres from the streets today — in contrast to the last two bandhs called by the Left since the Mamata government came to power — prompted state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya to say he sniffed “a link” between the rival parties.

“The chief minister accuses us of being the B-team of the CPM,” Bhattacharya said. “But the lack of initiative on the part of Trinamul and its government to foil today’s bandh smacks of a link between the two parties during today’s shutdown.”

CPM leaders were unhappy not just at being seen as taking up Trinamul’s cause, but also at the party leadership’s propensity to call bandhs and strikes on national and international issues.

“From imperialism to the nuclear deal with the US, we have launched political movements in the state on diverse issues with which the people in Bengal have little connect,” the CPM leader said. “All this at the behest of our leaders in Delhi.”

The leader insisted the party would have gained had its political activities centred solely around the Mamata government’s “misrule” in Bengal. “This is an issue with which the people here have an immediate connect.”

Another CPM leader said the party should have taken a leaf out of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Bimal Gurung’s book.

“In the last few years, the Morcha had called several bandhs, but all of them were on issues central to the people of the hills,” the CPM leader said. “Whether it was on additional territory for the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration or permanent jobs for the casual employees of the DGHC, all the issues were close to the hearts of the hill people.”

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat’s statement yesterday that the UPA had no right to continue in office also appeared to have upset some party leaders in Bengal. “The Bengal unit of the party does not want elections now,” a CPM leader pointed out.

To be fair, Karat had not spoken of early elections or of toppling the government.

Asked today what the CPM would do if the UPA government faces a confidence vote, a visibly angry Biman Bose said: “I cannot react to a hypothetical question.’’