Against Bandh

An anti-strike activist wields a stick wrapped in a Trinamul flag on the motorcycle of an employee of the district primary school council in Cooch Behar around noon on Tuesday. The employee claimed that he had come out of the office to have tea. But Trinamul supporters sent him back inside the office, saying it was not the time for such breaks. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

FOR Bandh

The broken windscreen of a bus that was pelted with stones by strike supporters in Raiganj on Tuesday. Picture by Nantu Dey

Calcutta, Feb. 28: The CPM is all set to keep the heat on the Mamata Banerjee government in the coming months, emboldened by the “success’’ of today’s strike.

As a first measure, apparently in an effort not to lose momentum, former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would be hitting the streets tomorrow.

“Nine months ago, the people of Bengal gave their verdict. Going by that, people were expected to defy our strike call. But the opposite happened. They supported us and made the strike a success. That shows how this government is fast losing popular support,” Citu president Shyamal Chakraborty said today.

The party will organise a padayatra tomorrow evening which would be led by Bhattacharjee from Ganguly Bagan in Jadavpur. The procession is being organised to protest the attack on a CPM office in the area this morning.

“We really didn’t expect such a successful strike today. Now it’s our job to take this forward… to rebuild our organisation and re-establish our connect with the people. One way to do that is to take the message to the people about the lapses of the Mamata Banerjee government, the rapidly deteriorating law-and-order condition and other issues,’’ said a CPM leader.

“We don’t want to waste time… we want to keep the momentum going… to consolidate today’s gains. As a first step, we will be organising the padayatra from Jadavpur to protest today’s attack on our party office and comrades. Buddha da will be leading it,’’ the leader added.

Coming on the back of the successful Brigade rally on February 19, the CPM leadership wants to capitalise on today’s “success’’ by directly challenging Mamata, a hint of which was dropped by leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra.

“The government wanted to foil the strike by threatening employees. That had made the strike successful at least 24 hours before it began. Now, the chief minister will have to think 10 times before taking up the challenge of foiling strikes if we call them in the future,’’ Mishra said.

Referring to Mamata’s threat that government employees would suffer a break in service if they didn’t report for duty on the strike day, Mishra today said: “She had talked about a break in service for employees staying away. Now she will do some witch-hunting. I dare her to go ahead with her idea. Let her take up one such case. She will realise the reaction then.’’

Asked whether the CPM would stand by those who could be affected by the government’s action, Mishra added: “Of course. We will express our solidarity with them… we will move court or help them move court.’’

A section of the CPM is viewing the degree of “success’’ of today’s strike to be a “bit higher’’ than that of the Brigade rally. According to the leaders, there was an “internal’’ challenge for the party to put up a good show at Brigade but in case of today’s strike, the real hurdle was to counter the government’s and the Trinamul’s threats to foil the shutdown.

“For the Brigade rally, we knew that people were predicting a poor show. But our party mobilised supporters systematically from the districts… that was an internal challenge that we faced and overcame,’’ said a CPM state secretariat member.

“But in case of the strike, the chief minister issued official threats to punish employees… officers were called up and threatened with dire consequences if they didn’t report for duty. Trinamul supporters brought out rallies in the past two days and today also against the strike. A general fear was there. Amid this, the degree of today’s success is certainly higher than that of Brigade’s,’’ the leader added.

According to another leader, today’s “success’’, however, was more because of the people’s “growing disenchantment’’ with Mamata’s ways of governance than their support for the strike.

“In the Assembly elections, a big chunk of the electorate didn’t vote for Mamata… but voted against CPM. Today also, many people didn’t support our strike. But they saw Mamata threatening employees and officers… trying to foil our strike at any cost. They are not liking her ways. That’s why, many of them stayed indoors,’’ the leader said.