Bloc 145;Carry146; grudge over CM146;s order: ministers to boycott work

While announcing the decision on Friday night, the Bloc also threatened that the ministers will resign if Bhattacharjee8217;s order to that effect is not revoked immediately. The party, however, did not issue any threat to pull out of the Left Front as a coalition partner. Bloc happens to be the second largest party in the Front with 23 legislators and three parliamentarians.

Bloc general secretary Ashok Ghosh said: 8220;The CM cannot issue such diktats. We want to know from Biman Bose if the party stands by the CM8217;s decision.8221;

The crisis had snowballed after a Bloc state secretariat meeting on Friday morning decided against granting the APMC license to Metro Cash 038; Carry. The license had been withdrawn in June 2007 and the company had been pleading for its renewal as it was fully prepared to launch operations. To solve the issue, the CPM had convened a meeting on September 28.

But the Bloc secretariat decision not to grant the license this morning irked Bhattacharjee, who used his discretionary powers to make way for the issuance of a license, following which the Bloc met again in the evening.

Biman Bose, the chairman of the LF, declined to comment on the issue. Other Front partners were divided on the issue. General Secretary of CPI Manju Majumdar said the decision of the Bloc was unfortunate. 8220;Still, the problem can be solved through bipartite meeting,8221; he said. Manoj Bhattacharjee, central committee member of the RSP, said: 8220;The CM took a unilateral decision. These sort of unilateral decisions are not acceptable in a coalition.8221;