Accordingly, the district committee had decided to book 2,500 tickets in Delhi-bound trains from Howrah and Sealdah. However, even after trying for the last one week district committee members could manage to get only around 150 tickets.

Even as party leader Rabin Deb, denied that his comrades failed to book tickets, party sources confirmed that many of them would not be able to attend the rally because the leaders did not allow them to request the Railways for a special train to Delhi. Deb, however, said: “We have not requested the Railways for a special train, but I think there will be no scarcity of tickets.”

“It is impossible to get a berth at the last moment. We are told that merely 150 comrades will be able to attend the rally,” said a senior leader.

Sources said after having received the instruction from Alimuddin Street, the Kolkata district committee had decided to book a whole train for the cadres selected to attend Delhi rally. But this proposal was also rejected by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and CPM state secretary Biman Bose.

Usually, political activists do not retain proper tickets while travelling by trains to attend party rallies. But this time Alimuddin Street was extra careful as with Mamata Banerjee holding the post of the Railway Minister, there are ample possibilities of cadres being booked by the railway authorities, said a source. The Left rally has been organised to protest the price rise.

All the nine allies of the Left Front, including RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI, will join hands with big brother CPM over the issue. “The rally will be attended by cadres mainly from Delhi and surrounding states, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana. Kolkata will only have a token representation in the rally,” said a leader. The cost of travelling of the cadres will be shouldered by the party, he added.