Political circles had been interpreting the bandh, the first ever called by a Front partner against the CPM, as the last straw in Bloc's strained relations with CPM over the past one year.

But the Bloc itself, having conceded that it will not quit the Front despite its differences with the CPM, yielded further ground on Wednesday by announcing that the 24-hour bandh was being cut short by six hours.

Biman Bose, CPM state secretary and Left Front chairman, said he expected Left Front unity to remain intact. “Our parties will sit together and resolve the issue,” he said.

Ashok Ghosh, Forward Bloc’s state secretary, iterated today that his party would not quit the Front even though Dinhata is the “second Nandigram”.

Ghosh also spurned an offer from Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to work with her on the basis of a common minimum programme. “We have political differences with TMC and the Congress so it is impossible to join with them politically,” Ghosh told reporters at his party's state headquarters at 5pm.

Mamata, who has been wooing the Bloc steadily ever since the Bloc voiced its anger over the Nandigram issue, had announced at a press conference earlier today that her party was inviting the Bloc to work with it on a common minimum programme to defeat the CPM.

As for the CPM, state minister for sports and transport Subhas Chakrabarty, describing the Dinhata incident as “undesirable”, questioned the police action. “I cannot understand why the police had to open fire. At the best some property would have been lost. But had the police showed restraint, precious lives would have been saved,” Chakrabarty said.

Party leader Shyamal Chakraborty said the two parties are keeping open lines of communication and bipartite meetings would be held soon. ‘We also don’t think that the Forward Bloc will leave the Front,” Chakraborty said.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who expressed his regrets over the police firing at Dinhata, meanwhile, ordered an administrative inquiry into the incident.

“I have already talked to Ashokda (Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh) about this and I will talk to him tomorrow again,” Bhattacharjee today said in Delhi.

The death toll in Dinhata violence rose to six, as Krishnakanta Burman, an NVF constable who received blows of lathis on his head, died this morning.