Anil Biswas

Calcutta, March, 19: Anil Biswas?s condition remains critical.

Yesterday, surgeons carried out an emergency operation to remove a blood clot from his brain. But a CT scan today revealed a big clot in the right half of his brain and doctors said there was inter-cerebral bleeding.

A part of the clot had remained after the surgery and with the haemorrhage continuing, it became heavy.

A second operation was performed on Biswas around 7.30 this evening to remove fresh clots, doctors said.

The CPM state secretariat held an emergency meeting this morning to review the situation. Left Front chairman and politburo member Biman Bose later said political programmes that Biswas was scheduled to attend, in view of the upcoming Assembly elections, would now be distributed among senior leaders of the party.

All election-related meetings of the party this morning were cancelled.

Biswas suddenly fell ill at home last night after chairing a meeting of the CPM state committee.

He was rushed to a private hospital and an hour-long operation was carried out from 11 pm to drain the clot in the right temporo-parietal region of the brain.

A seven-member medical board headed by R.N. Roy has been set up for the CPM leader, who is on a ventilator at cabin A-4 of the intensive coronary care unit.

A medical bulletin released this afternoon said: ?Anil Biswas was admitted yesterday after he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage and subsequently underwent an emergency brain operation to remove the clot?. The medical board reviewed his condition at 10 am this morning and another CT scan was carried out.?

A member of the medical board, Jayanta Basu, said Biswas?s left side was paralysed. ?This is a kind of stroke caused by high blood pressure and hypertension. Biswas had a history of high blood pressure.?

Party sources said he had not eaten not eat anything during the eight-hour stay at the CPM headquarters yesterday.

He returned home in the evening and had bread and a boiled egg. Supposed to leave for Malda at night, he asked for dinner and started packing his bag.

Anil Biswas’s daughter Ajanta on Sunday afternoon.

A CPM leader at the hospital said Biswas started feeling sick around 8.30 pm and called up party general secretary Prakash Karat in Delhi and informed him that he was seriously ill. Then he fell on the bed.

Family members then called up party leaders in the city and his physician, Jayanta Basu, who rushed to his house on Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road, near Entally market.

A CPM leader said Biswas spoke to the doctor and gradually slipped into unconsciousness. Accompanied by his wife Gita, daughter Ajanta and son-in-law, Biswas reached the hospital a little past 9.30 pm.

Emergency tests began almost immediately.

Health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra, himself a physician, rushed to the hospital and stayed till late night.

Left leaders and supporters thronged the hospital today, among them were the CPM?s Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan.