While Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee left the meeting half-way, Left Front chairman Biman Bose later told reporters that the CM wants an opinion from all the constituents of the ruling coalition who have been asked to go through the report.

“The CM has asked for a unanimous opinion of the Left Front. That he left the meeting is not an important issue,” Bose said.

CPM sources said the issue will be discussed again in the party’s three-day central committee meeting scheduled in Kolkata from February 4.

Sources said while the Forward Bloc and a section of the CPM want immediate implementation of the panel’s recommendations, the CM is not too keen on religion-based reservation although he agreed that the minorities are living in a deplorable condition.

Among those who back a quota for Muslims is the CPM’s Abdur Rezzak Mollah, a minister who wants the state government to take immediate measures to implement the Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations.

But the CPM leadership seemed to be putting the ball in the Centre’s court. “How the state government would act, we cannot say at this moment. But the Union government should come up with the action taken report,” said Bose, also CPM’s state secretary.

Bose is said to be of the view that reservation can be given only on the basis of “economic and social” background.

“Though we have unanimously welcomed the Mishra Commission’s recommendations, we can say the Union government should discuss the report in Parliament and then issue an order. Only then, the state government can act,” he said.