The key to the current imbroglio is the battle for power between the CITU, on the one hand, and the CPI’s AITUC and a breakaway group of the CITU union, on the other. At the factory level, the CITU union got only 36 per cent of the votes in the last elections, while the HM’s and Hyderabad Industries Ltd’s Sangrami Shramik Karmachari Union is the sole bargaining agent, with 62 per cent of the votes. The SSKU, floated by dissident CITU leader Gobinda Chakraborty, is in turn backed by the AITUC — specifically, Gurudas Dasgupta, the MP.

CITU knows that the HM showdown will be the key to its survival in the new Bengal, where the Buddhadeb Bhattcharjee government has managed to bring in four vehicle projects —-Tata Motors’ small-car project, Russian truckmaker Ural, Indonesia’s Salim group and a Bengali entrepreneur, each setting up a two-wheeler company. The automobile sector is clearly booming in the state and that is why the CITU is so keen to establish its uncontested presence in it.