Kolkata: With reports of sporadic violence across the state the 12-hour long strike called by the Left Front and Congress was partial successful in West Bengal.
The city, though, faced a normal lifestyle with people going to their offices and with full swing vehicles plying on the road.
Notably, the Left Front cadre blocked railway tracks and roads in Raiganj, Asansol, Dankuni, Nadia, Burdwan, and parts of Kolkata along with North 24 Parganas early Friday morning.
Bratati Ghosh, a corporate worker who was seen in the busy Esplanade area of Central Kolkata said that her office made attendance compulsory despite the bandh.
“Initially we all saw that with lesser vehicles it will be difficult to reach the office but the public transportation is normal and didn’t through normal life out of gear,” mentioned Bratati.
However, calling the bandh successful, senior Left Front leader and politburo member Sujan Chakraborty mentioned that the people of West Bengal has ‘spontaneously’ responded to the bandh.
Incidentally, Left Front cadres were seen vandalizing police vans in the Esplanade area but later made peace with the police by offering them chocolate and roses. Tyres were also burnt in several districts of West Bengal.
It is pertinent to recall that Kolkata on February 11 turned into a battlefield as the police resorted to lathi-charge on the Left Front student wing during their march towards the West Bengal secretariat.
Demanding employment and industrialization, 10 student union wings of the Left Front on Thursday held their protest rally towards Nabanna, but the congregation was stopped at the Esplanade area of Central Kolkata. When the student wings tried to break open the barricades, not just lathi, the police were also seen firing tear gas and water cannons leaving several CPI (M) cadres injured.