Even as Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was breathing fire at the state government at a rally in Nandigram, her party MLAs and supporters blocked central Kolkata for over three hours demanding the arrest of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who they alleged had masterminded violence across the state.

Traffic in the central hub of the city was thrown out of gear for over three hours following the wild-cat demonstration.

“We demand the immediate arrest of the chief minister who has blood on his hands. Till date, 168 of our supporters have been killed by armed CPM cadres in the districts,” said Trinamool MLA Madan Mitra, while his supporters blocked Dorina Crossing in the afternoon.

The police were informed that the supporters of Trinamool Youth Congress Committee would organise a rally at Metro Channel to protest against CPM’s atrocities on their followers across the state and price hike of essential commodities. Instead, thousands of Trinamool activists blocked the Dorina Crossing.

Ironically, the Trinamool leaders blamed the traffic disruption on the police.

Following the road block, almost all important intersections were clogged with buses, mini-buses, taxis and other vehicles standing bumper-to-bumper, with the traffic police having a tough time controlling the situation.

As the police had no prior information, no plan was in place and common people faced a lot of problems in parking their vehicles or reaching their destinations. Being a week day, home-bound commuters were the worst affected as most them had to walk for few miles to reach Sealdah and Howrah stations.

... contd.