The commission rescheduled the date for withdrawal of nominations to April 22.

"We have no option but to extend the deadline," said SN Roychowdhury, secretary, state election commission.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, who was urged by Congress leaders to refrain from going ahead with the bandh, remained determined and said: "The CPM are supporting the Congress at the Centre and they cannot escape the responsibility for the price hike." But her 12-hour-bandh has not been received well.

Not only the SEC, the Calcutta University too had to reschedule its examinations. "The examination scheduled for April 21 has been rescheduled to April 22. The time and venue of the examination will remain the same," said Debasish Biswas, the deputy controller of examinations of CU.

About 40,000 students were earlier scheduled to appear in the university examination slated for April 21. However, taking into account the inconvenience that the bandh would cause to the students, the university decided to postpone the exam by one day.

Earlier, the Kalyani University had also changed their examination schedule in the wake of the bandh announcement.

The students, however, do not seem to be happy with the postponement decision.

"Our examination schedule had enough time between two papers. Now with the rescheduling we have to appear in honours examination for two consecutive days. With the change, the sixth honours paper is on April 22 and the seventh is on April 23 and it has become very difficult to cope with the pressure for two consecutive days," said Shawan Sen, a third year student of Sociology Honours of St Xavier's College.

Another section of the people, who are unhappy with the bandh, is the business community.

"Bandhs send out wrong signals to the industry. The bandh has been called to protest the hike in prices of essential commodities. But ironically, it will badly hit the people who have been worse affected by the price hike. The daily wage earners will suffer due to this shutdown," said Atul Churiwal, president, Merchants Chamber of Commerce.