Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee leaves Alimuddin Street for Mamata Banerjee’s swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan on Friday afternoon. Picture by Aranya Sen

Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan limped back to life on Friday, almost as if Mamata Banerjee being sworn in as chief minister a few kilometres away was the jolt it needed to wake up from slumber.

Left Front leaders started trooping into the CPM’s Alimuddin Street headquarters one after the other, the staff got busy cleaning the cars and the chauffeurs changed into their crisply ironed uniforms.

Gopinath Sau, a 40-year-old roving tea vendor who crosses 31 Alimuddin Street every day between 11 and 11.30am, was taken aback by the flurry of activity exactly a week after Friday the 13th. Over the past seven days, he had only seen half a dozen Special Branch officers wandering aimlessly on the premises. Occasionally, one of them would call out to him to buy a cup of tea.

“Koi programme hai kya (Is there any event)?” Gopinath asked one of the officers on Friday morning.

“Don’t you know Mamata Banerjee is going to take oath at Raj Bhavan as the state’s new chief minister?” the cop shot back.

The officer admitted later that Gopinath was “right in his observation” about Alimuddin Street witnessing signs of activity after a week. “This is usually a very busy landmark. After all, it is the headquarters of the party that ruled the state for 34 years. A large contingent of cops would be deployed here until last Friday’s verdict snuffed life out of the place,” he said.

A colleague of the officer, dressed in a deep-blue safari suit, paced up and down grumbling about being refused permission to switch on the television to watch the oath-taking ceremony live.

“Dekhun na, boleche TV chalano jabe na (They have told us we can’t switch on the TV),” he said. “This is the first time in 34 years that a non-communist chief minister will be taking oath. I want to see it happen but they have locked the door,” said the officer, pointing to a small room on the ground floor.

On May 13, that room had been opened to journalists for them to be able to keep track of the counting trends being beamed live on TV. The room was allegedly kept locked this Friday “under instructions”.

At 12.10pm, Left Front chairman Biman Bose came down from the second floor with Kiranmoy Nanda, Biswanath Chaudhuri, Manju Majumdar and Kshiti Goswami.

“Why are you people here?” Bose asked the waiting journalists and photographers, looking suitably surprised by their presence.

“I won’t say anything,” he declared

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the first one to arrive at the party office at 10am, was the last to leave for Raj Bhavan. He stepped out around 12.30pm, after measuring the size of the media contingent through the space between the grilles on the mezzanine floor.

“His glum look hasn’t changed since last Friday. Today, he got off his white Ambassador and went up without casting a glance at anyone,” said a staff member on duty at the reception after Bhattacharjee’s departure.

Life may have finally returned to Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan, but the smiles haven’t.