Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday skipped office in the second half of the day as he was indisposed. Bhattacharjee, who has caught cold and is running a slight temperature, left office for lunch at 1.15 pm, 15 minutes before his scheduled time.

In the last nine years of his chief ministership, Bhattacharjee has never skipped office because of illness. In fact, the chief minister has not been keeping in a very good health for the last few days. Last Friday, he skipped the Left Front meeting at Alimuddin Street and stayed back home for rest.

“He looks exhausted and is somehow carrying along. He needs a lot of rest,” an official at the Writers’ Buildings said.

However, the chief minister’s scheduled visit to West Midnapore district on Tuesday, where he will have meetings with the district officials to take stock of the pace of development in the Maoist-affected district, is still on, according to officials at the chief minister’s secretariat.

“Since the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and the subsequent devastation by Cyclone Aila, the chief minister has been trying to accelerate the pace of development all over the state and has started undertaking trips to different districts at weekends. So far, he has covered 10 districts, sacrificing his weekends. This might have affected his health.

He has been advised rest by his friends and well-wishers for some days. Let’s see what he does,” an official said.