The AMRI tragedy brought arch political adversaries chief minister Mamata Banerjee and CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose face to face. When Mr Bose went to the SSKM Hospital, he stopped his car when he saw Ms Banerjee. Both said a polite “namaskar” and then Ms Banerjee held Mr Bose’s hand and assured him that her government was taking every possible measure.

With the win of Subrata Bakshi by a massive margin in Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat, the victory march of the Trinamul Congress goes on.

Upping her ante against the Congress-led UPA government for not yet providing money to bail out cash-strapped Bengal, chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday instructed he

In his bid to lob the ball into the Opposition’s court, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has in his reply to Union home minister P. Chidambaram pointed out that he had asked all parties in Bengal to work together to prevent political clashes but the Trinamul Congress alone “remains non-cooperative”. He

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has delivered what he said was “a fitting reply” to Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s salvo at him. Dismissing outright the Mr Chidam-baram’s contention in the letter sent to him in which he virtually ordered the CM to disband the armed cadres of the CPI(M), and called them “harmad vahini”, the CM, replied that Mr Chidambaram’s observations were “surprising and far from impartial”.

Despite the efforts of Citu (the CPI(M)’s trade union wing) to make people’s life a little easier by keeping train services and shops and markets in Muslim-dominated areas outside the purview of the 24 hour general strike, the shutdown in the state was complete. Buoyed by the bandh’s success, the Communist parties are now planning to lay a siege of Parliament early in 2011.