“We are the bigger party and we have a responsibility to listen to them and keep the unity of the Left Front intact,” a CPM leader quoted Basu as saying during the party’s state committee meeting at its Alimuddin Street headquarters on Tuesday.

CPM sources said Basu’s statement in the meeting was meant for Biman Bose, whose “abrasive” ways as the Left Front chairman have upset senior leaders of almost all the Left Front partners. “Ashok Ghosh (Forward Bloc state secretary) has even informally told many CPM leaders that he is not happy with Biman Bose’s behaviour,” a senior CPM leader said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the state committee also discussed the Dinhata police firing and health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra’s report on the implications of the bird flu outbreak.

Mishra said the party cadres must ensure that the backyard poultry farmers affected by the large-scale culling operations get the compensation sanctioned by the government.

Ever since the Dinhata police firing on February 5, in which five Forward Bloc supporters were killed, the CPM’s relations with the Bloc and parties like the Revolutionary Socialist Party and Communist Party of India have worsened.

The Bloc supporters were organising protests against block development officers (BDOs) across the state when the situation turned violent, prompting a jittery police force to open fire.

The Bloc called a statewide bandh the next day, in the first-ever protest by a Front member against the CPM and the government.